preview

How Insulators Affect The Temperature Of Water

Decent Essays

How Insulators Effect the Temperature of Water

II. Introduction:

Background - Thermal energy is the total kinetic energy of the particles of a substance. And, kinetic energy is energy that a body possesses by virtue of being in motion. Heat is the transfer of energy between objects that are different temperatures. Along with this, temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in an object. Heat transfer is “If there is a temperature difference in a system, heat will naturally move from high to low temperatures” (http://www.physics4kids.com/files/thermo_transfer.html). There are three types of Heat Energy Transfer, which is conduction, convection, and radiation. An example of heat transfer is if one part of …show more content…

Purpose / Problem - The purpose of this lab was to determine which insulator would be the most effective in keeping the water closest to its original temperature. c. Hypothesis / Prediction - If the temperature of the boiling water drops quickly, then it shows how saran wrap is not a strong insulator because it did not keep the water hot.

III. Procedure:

Materials - Beaker, Hot Plate, Saran Wrap, Stopwatch, Thermometer, Water
Methods - In the beginning of the lab, the beaker filled with boiling water was taken off of the hot place and saran wrap was wrapped around it. After that, a thermometer was placed inside of the water. Next, the temperature was checked and recorded every two minutes over a course of twenty minutes. The temperatures were recorded to see quickly the temperature of boiling water decreased over time. All of the groups did the exact same thing except with different insulators.

IV. …show more content…

The group first noticed that from 0-2 minutes and from 2-4 minutes, the water’s temperature decreased a lot. After four minutes, the temperature started to decrease at a steady pace. Within the first four minutes, the water temperature decreased from 100℉ to 80℉. Also, the group notice that the temperature of the boiling water with saran wrap decreased faster and dropped more than all of the other groups. This shows that saran wrap is not a good insulator because the temperature dropped so much in a short period of

Get Access