How feathers effect heat loss in penguins.

Authors Avatar

TITLE – HOW FEATHERS EFFECT HEAT LOSS IN PENGUINS.

NAME JOE TROIANO   FORM 5B

INTRODUCTION

State what the overall aim of the experiment is. Give brief details of any preliminary work you did and how it has helped you to identify the key parameters for this experiment.

  The overall aim of this project is to investigate how feathers affect heat loss in penguins. Before my preliminary experiment I decided to take the temperature every 3 minutes and use 0g, 5g, 10g, and 15g in the plastic bag also the starting temperature of 55 C – 60 C.

  Then after the preliminary experiment I decided to change some of the measurements so it help to suit the way I am setting up my experiment. These are the changes I will now undergo –

  1. I will take the temperature every 1-minute.
  2. I will have to lower amounts of feathers the amounts of feathers because every 5g is too big.
  3. But I will keep the temperature the same.

   Now after these changes I am now ready to set up a full experiment.

WHAT FACTORS DO YOU NEED TO CONTROL OR VARY IN THIS EXPERIMENT.

State the key factors to vary control or take account of (remember the fair test). Give brief explanation of how you would control each.

   I will have to remember to keep a fair test throughout the experiment this is the definition I will have to keep to throughout the experiment –

   *Only one factor is changed at a time while all other factors are kept as  their highest and their best value *

   During this experiment the factors that will be the independent variable is the amount of feathers. The different amounts of feathers after my preliminary experiment will know be 0g, 2g, 4g and 8g then I will repeat it again and then get an average.

  The factors of this experiment that will stay the same are these –

  *The amount of water, which will be 40ml.

  *The temperature of the water, which will be 55 C – 60 C.

 How I will keep the temperature roughly the same is by getting it out of the same water bath the water temperature in the water bath will be 70 C then I will use a thermometer until it gets to the right temperature.

When taking the temperature I will have to take from the same place because of convection currents. In convection currents hot water will rise to the top while cold water will drop to the bottom so I will need to take the temperature from the same place in the test tube.

  Also I need to remember to keep the experiment in the same place of the classroom to maintain the same environment.

  These are all the factor that I will need to remember throughout the experiment.  

 

WHAT DO YOU PREDICT WILL HAPPEN?

State what you think will happen. Be quantitative if possible.

    To prove that the feathers are causing a factor in the heat loss of feathers I will have to do an all or nothing experiment, this is having a test tube with an empty plastic bag around it and one test tube with a bag of feathers wrapped around it. From this I would predict that the feathers cause the heat loss to be less.

    (This is what I predict will happen in the continuous experiment.) In this experiment I am trying to see the heat loss in these quantities 2g, 4g, 6g and 8g after using these quantities in my experiment I would predict that as the amount of feathers increase the rate of heat loss will decrease. I also predict that if I double the amount of feathers the heat loss will halve.

Join now!

USE SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING TO EXPLAIN YOUR PREDICTION.

Explain your prediction based on what you have learnt. You may refer to preliminary work you have carried out. You may also include other evidence of research, including secondary sources (although you must indicate this). Comment on possible controls and factors, which may prevent you controlling some variables effectively.

   In the all or nothing experiment this proves that the feathers causes less heat to escape the test tube. When the plastic bag has feathers in or no feathers the heat will still escape the test tube and these are the 3 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay