Conservation of energy (2)

• What are you investigating?

  • How well materials thermally insulate
• What are the steps?

  • Select different materials to test as thermal insulators (ie foil, bubble wrap etc)
  • Wrap around glass beaker and pour in hot water
  • Place a cardboard lid on the beaker and poke through a thermometer
  • Take the initial temp
  • Ten min timer and at the end record the end temp - calculate the change
  • Repeat with different materials
• What is the control variable

  • Initial temp of the water
  • Volume of the water
• What is the indepentant variable?


  • The material
• What is the dependant variable

  • The temp change due to the different material