Prediction
On the basis of my research, I predict that if you put cloth material in the beaker it will be the best insulator because the more air pockets it has the better it is for the heat to become trapped. Also as cloth has a big surface they would not be many particles hitting each other. I will also use a lid to cover the beaker so when the heat rises the lid will protect it from going out.
Method
- Insulate the beakers.
- Measure 200cm of boiling water.
- Put 100 cm of boiling water in each beaker.
- Then put the lid on with the thermometer going through the hole and put that in the water.
- Start the stopwatch when the temperature hits 75c.
- Then check the time every minute and record the timing
- Repeat the experiment the again and go through exactly the same steps.
.
Fair test
- Make sure thickness of material is same
- Start at the same temperature, 75c.
- Same amount of water, 100cm
- Same length of time, 6 mins.
Safety points
- Wear goggles
2. Take exceptional care when using hot water.
Observing
The data that I will be collecting is the rate of temperature loss over a period of time. The first sets of results I will have are the measurements of the temperature of the water every minute. I will then repeat the experiment to get and average set of results which I hope would cancel out any anonymous results.
Analysis
As you can see from the graph and table that bubble wrap was the best insulator to keep hot water warm. I think my experiment worked well and that my results are appropriate. They make sense and turned out to be more or less as expected. For temperature difference they are backed up by the secondary data. My results were valid because I did the experiment fairly. I used the same amount of water and same starting temperature each time. I also used the same equipment i.e Beaker,stopwatch and thermometer. This ensured all the results were obtained the same way. From the graph and the you can see that the material which lost the most heat was control. Here is the differences of the 5 different materials from the start to the end over the 6 minutes.
- Bubble wrap - 75c – 68.3c = 6.7c, so Bubble wrap lost 6.7c after 6 minutes
- Cloth – 75c – 67.6 = 7.4c, So Cloth lost 7.4c after 6 minutes
- Card – 75c – 68 = 7c, So Card lost 7c after 6 minutes
- Lagging – 75c – 65.8 = 9.2c, So Lagging lost 9.2c after 6 minutes
- Control – 75c – 59c = 16c, So control lost 16c after 6 minutes
So as you can see that the material which has lost the least heat is bubble wrap and the material which has lost the most heat is control this is because bubble wrap has more air pockets which meant that heat was trapped and less heat was lost.
Heat can be lost very easily from hot water tanks and hot water pipes. We can reduce the heat loss from these if we insulate them- this is called lagging. Cold water tanks are also lagged- to keep warm in winter and prevent the water from not freezing. When a roof is insulated it is important not to insulate the space underneath the cold water tank and also stops freezing. So here is the scientific theory which tells us how heat is kept within the surface area.
Conclusion
I think I done a very good experiment to find out which material was better to keep hot water warm in the beaker. My original prediction which was cloth was wrong because the best material which kept the water warm was bubble wrap. This was mainly due to the fact that it had more air pockets then cloth and the heat were trapped with less movement so less heat was loss. Glass is a good insulator of heat because it has tiny air pockets of trapped air and this trapped air stops heat being conducted away, this means heat will not be able to pass through the glass. If heat was to somehow pass through the glass then it won’t get much further because around the glass will be material such as Bubble wrap, cloth, card lagging or control. For the heat to travel pass both glass and material it would need a lot of energy which was not present in the beaker, the only way in which I say the heat may have been lost is that when we put the thermometer in the water there was a tiny hole even though the top part of the beaker was covered it was not secure which would have meant that heat may have been lost and this may been the case when I was conducting the experiment with control which may have been the reason that control lost a lot of heat compared to Bubble wrap. As you can see from the table that bubble wrap came on top then it was card closely followed by cloth then it was lagging with control finishing last in the order. So the material which lost the most heat was Bubble wrap and this was the best material which prevented heat loss.
Evaluation
I had one set of anonymous results which were those for Control.It lost heat far quicker compared to Bubble Wrap, because after 6 minutes Bubble wrap temperature went down to 68.3 in 6 minutes when the temperature started at 75 whereas Control’s temperature went down a lot quicker from 75 degrees to 59 degrees it dropped 16 degress after 6 minutes. This could have been because my group was working near a door which could have been opened whilst we were doing our experiment. This would have caused a greater temperature difference between the hot water and the air temperature and speed around it. This would have caused a greater heat loss.
Improving the Investigation
If I were to do this experiment again there are several things I would change or add to make it better. I would also use either a digital thermometer or data logging via a computer. A digital thermometer would avoid human error caused by reading off the conventional thermometer. Data logging would also avoid errors because it is done automatically.I think my method was exceptional well done because I took great care and made sure all aspects were covered such as making sure it was started at 75c with 100cm water, making it 6 mins and making sure the material on both beakers was the same amount or near enough the same amount, also I done the experiment twice which enabled me to get 2 set of results which made it a better experiment. I can’t think of any bad points which were made or done. If I was to do this experiment again I would do more test which would enable me to have a variety of results, have more material instead of 5, I would have 6 to 7 or to use different thickness of material so see if this would make any difference.
