How different amounts of insulation affect the temperature fall of boiled water.

• the amount of boiled water
• the test tube        
• the type and size of paper
• the length of time between temperature checks
• the start temperature of the water
• and the thermometer

Method:

In this experiment I am going to do the following in order to complete it fairly:

1. I will collect all my equipment and put the kettle on to boil my water.
2. Once the kettle is boiled I will pour 40ml of the water into my test tube and check the start temperature so that each time I repeat the experiment I start at the same temperature.
3. I will place the bung with the thermometer attached in the test tube and set the stopwatch going for 10 minutes looking at the temperature every 2 minutes.
4. I will record my results and once the 10 minutes are finished I will empty the contents then repeat steps 1-3. Once this test is done i will empty the contents once again and wrap a paper towel around the test tube then repeat steps 1-3 again.
5. I will continue the experiment by adding one more paper towel each time repeating the experiment so I can find an average of my results. Once I have ended up with four paper towels wrapped around the test tube I will stop.

Prediction:

I predict that the more paper towels wrapped around the test tube the less the temperature will fall because it will be more insulated. This is due to air been a poor conductor as it is a gas. When the particles are far apart like in a gas it is harder for them to pass energy through but when they are close together like in a solid the energy passes easy.

Tanya Ullah 10BG2

 A table to show how different amounts of insulation affect the temperature fall of boiled water.

Averages Table:

Conclusion:

The results of my experiment show that the more paper towels you wrap around the test tube full of water the less the temperature falls. This is because air can not escape as it is trapped between the layers of paper towels. Air is a poor conductor as it is a gas and the particles are further apart and it is more difficult for the energy to pass from particle to particle. Whereas in a solid the particles are close together and pass energy easily.

Evaluation:

When looking at my results table I notice that my repeated results are very similar the biggest difference is 2 . On my first graph the lines of best fit are quite correct but when I look at my second graph I noticed there were two result which didn’t fit in with the line of best fit. This may have been because the wraps of paper towels weren’t the same tightness on the repeats or that the start temperature I choose was too low. To improve my experiment I could start with a higher temperature or I could do gather more results for example do the test with up to ten paper towels.

Tanya Ullah 10BG2