Brian Zampier, age 12, of Barneveld, New York, for his question:

What do calories have to do with weight?

The calorie is a measure of heat    which seems very far afield from the problems of excess human poundage. What's more, to make things more confusing, there are two calorie units. The small calorie is the heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of pure water by one degree Centigrade. The large Calorie is worth 1,000 small calories. This larger unit is the one used to estimate the value of foods in relation to human weight. By rights it should be spelled with a capital letter.

During the process of digestion, the body breaks down foods into chemicals that can be used by the living cells. The cells carry on a sort of slow burning process  ¬which brings us around to the heat energy of the Calorie. One Calorie of heat raises the temperature of one pound of water four degrees Fahrenheit. The human body can use 100 of these same Calories of food energy to climb 1,640 feet up a fairly steep slope. Some foods yield more Calories than others. When we eat more than we use up, the body stores the extra fuel in fatty little globules that add surplus, unsightly poundage to the human figure.