But there are three ways that the beaker can be affected by heat.
CONDUCTION of heat is a process where vibrating particles pass on their extra vibration energy to the particles near them. Metals are good conductors because they have free electrons that will pass the heat on and diffuse quickly through the metal. Non metals are good insulators.
CONVECTION only happens in liquids and gases. This is because the particles in solids do not move. Convection happens when more energetic particles move from the hotter area to the cooler part and take their energy with them.
RADIATION is electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency. An object will emit or /and absorb radiation. The hotter they are the more heat radiation they emit. Cooler objects around them absorb the emissions.
Another way which heat could be lost would be through evaporation. This is when fast-moving particles near the surface of water breaks free. This lowers the energy of the particles left in the liquid so the liquid becomes cooler. I must control the evaporation by keeping the lid on all the time on every beaker because this may alter the cooling rate.
I predict that aluminium foil will work the best because it will reflect heat back onto the metal beaker that I think will keep the water warmer for longer. Also I have seen paramedics use it to stop retain body heat so it may just work in retaining heat from the copper beaker.
Results
Control
Bubble Wrap
(Degrees°c)
Foil
(Degrees°c)
Polystyrene
Black Sugar paper
Dishcloth
Analysis
(See graph paper)
According to the graph, polystyrene is the best insulator. It maintains a constant trend throughout the experiment and loses 9°c. Even though both polystyrene and bubble wrap lose the same amount of temperature, I feel polystyrene is better because it stays constant, whereas bubble wrap tends to dip slightly and then recovers.
I said in my prediction that aluminium foil would be the best at insulating. I was wrong. I was wrong because aluminium foil is a metal and metals are good conductors. Also shiny surfaces reflect heat. So as well as reflecting heat towards the beaker it’s also reflecting it away. Insulators insulate the best. The best insulators are non-metals. All of the non-metals, apart from black sugar paper insulated well. Non-metals are good insulators because the electrons are not as close together as metals. So the vibration energy moves slower and therefore insulates better. The reason why black sugar paper is the worst, is because matt black emits the most heat so all the heat is lost.
Evaluation
I believe my experiment was done as accurately as possible. However, some beakers were often warm because of boiling water, which had been poured at the wrong temperature. This results in the next experiment being slightly inaccurate because the other experiments involved beakers which were cold and not warm. Also it was very difficult to get the temperature right and therefore possibly some results were faulty. However, the evidence was good enough to support a firm conclusion.
I would like more time next time I do this experiment. This will enable me to do the experiment more accurately.
