Conduct an experiment involving the three mechanisms of heat loss - conduction, convection and radiation - I intend to discover which factor affects temperature the most, and which affects it the least.

Prediction:

I predict that the cups will cool down in the following order: Cup 1; Cup 2; Cups 3 and 4; and finally Cup 5. Cup 1 has no insulation at all, and so is open to all mechanisms of heat loss. All the other four prevent convection, however Cups 3 and 4 prevent either radiation or conduction respectively. Cup 5 will obviously take the longest because it protects from all 3. I can not predict whether Cup 3 will cool faster than 4, because I am unsure which mechanism of heat loss, conduction or radiation, discards the most heat. It will be interesting to find out.

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Results:

Analysis:

From our results we can see quite clearly that my prediction were accurate: that Cup 5 retained the most heat, and Cup 1 the least. To compare the 3 mechanisms, we will create a different chart displaying heat lost by each method. To find out heat lost by convection, we subtract Cup 5 from Cup 2. For radiation, we subtract Cup 4 from Cup 1, the control cup. For conduction, we subtract Cup 3 from Cup 1. Here is the table:

In conclusion, the statistics seem to imply that most heat is lost through radiation, and that conduction and convection provide equal amounts of heat loss.

Evaluation:

Further accuracy could have been induced by stirring the water, to heat evenly, and by using a digital thermometer. Larger cups or amounts of water would have cooled more slowly, and given better results.

My final averages were too close to really draw up any meaningful conclusion. With differences of less then 0.3o its difficult to imagine any significance in them.

My investigation could have been extended, and included a wide range of insulators. More repetitions of the experiment would give me more representative averages.