Conservation of Energy and Resources:

investigating the insulating properties of different materials

By : Charlotte Griffin

Class G5RFebruary 2012

To test the difference in insulating properties between different materials by seeing how

well they each stop a bottle of hot water from cooling down over time.

Purpose

I will use four materials in this experiment: tin foil, a plastic bag, newspaper and a woollen sock.

I think that the woollen sock will keep the water warmer for longer than all the other materials.

Hypothesis

Four identical plastic bottles Newspaper One woollen sock Tinfoil One plastic bag Thermometer Hot water Timer

Materials

1.Wrap each plastic bottle in one of the four materials: tinfoil, a plastic bag, newspaper and a woollen sock.

2.Pour an equal amount of hot water into the four insulated bottles.3.Take the temperature of the water in each bottle and record the data for Time Zero. Put the caps back on the bottles.4. Record the temperatures in the four bottles again after 5, 10, 20 and 30 minutes, keeping the caps on inbetween measurements.

Procedure

Procedure

1. The temperatures in all four bottles decrease over time as the water starts off much hotter than room temperature.

2. After only 5 minutes it was not so easy to tell the difference between the four bottles but the results were clearer after 30 minutes.

3. There was a notable difference in temperature of 4 Degrees Centigrade between the bottles with the best insulating material and the worst after 30 minutes.

Observations

Results

0 5 10 20 3046

51

56

61

Woolly SockTin FoilPlastic BagNewspaper

Time / Mins

Tem

p /

Deg C

In this experiment, you can see that water cools at different rates when using different materials for insulation.

My hypothesis was correct, the woollen sock did keep the water warmer than the

other materials. The newspaper was the poorest insulator.

Conclusion

Different materials have different insulating characteristics, some are better than others

at keeping heat in or out.

The Big Idea