Investigating methods of insulation - thickness

• To compare the effectiveness of different thicknesses of thermal insulators. use this experiment

  
• 1. Wrap a sheet of newspaper around a 100 ml beaker.
  2. Fill the beaker with hot water from a kettle.
  3. Put a piece of cardboard over the beaker as a lid. The lid should have a hole suitable for a thermometer.
  4. Place a thermometer into the beaker through the hole.

  A) newspaper

  B) cardboard

  C) stopwatch

  D) thermometer

  
• 5. Record the temperature of the water in the beaker and start the stopwatch.

  6. Record the temperature of the water every 2 minutes for 20 minutes.

  7. Repeat steps 1-6, each time adding another layer of newspaper around the beaker until there are 10 layers of newspaper wrapped around the beaker.

  8.Plot graphs of temperature against time.

  
• For each layer, plot a line graph of temperature on the y-axis and time on the x-axis.

  Plot all of the curves on the same axes.

  This will make the different thicknesses easier to compare.

  
• • The curve which takes the longest time for the water temperature to drop (the shallowest gradient) shows the amount of layers that provide the best insulation.
  • Having more layers of paper increases the insulation which means the temperature drops more slowly. The thickest insulation has the lowest rate of cooling.
  • The temperature falls quickly at high temperatures and slowly at low temperatures.

  
• there is a hazard of burning skin