Graph for Heat energy from Compost Project

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PowerOfScience
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2016 2:00 pm
Occupation: Student

Graph for Heat energy from Compost Project

Post by PowerOfScience »

Hello Moderators :?,

Note :!: : Plz read the procedure so that you can have a better understanding of what I am talking about.
Procedure: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... procedurel

I started doing the project, "Decomposing Energy: Extracting Heat Energy from a Compost Pile," which I found on the Science buddies website. I already bought all of the materials and am halfway done.

I want to do have at least three graphs in this project, but there are barely any hints to make one in this project:(. On step 7 at the end it says: "Note: Just before running the fan, take a compost pile temperature reading and record the reading in your lab notebook, along with the date and the time." So, I was thinking, the first graph could be something like Day, Temperature, Time on first aeration,Temperature before second aeration,Time on second aeration, Temperature before third aeration, time on third aeration. I would prefer something simpler and if you can make some changes that would be great.

At the end I read:

"Equation 1:

Q = mC∆T

Q = Heat energy in joules (J)
m = Mass of the water or the coffee can, in grams (g)
C = Specific heat capacity. For water, the specific heat capacity is 4.186 joules/grams °C for tin 0.227 joules/grams °K
∆T = Change in temperature in degrees Celsius (°C)"

This looks like a very interesting thing that could be made into a graph, but I do not know how to do it. Can you please give me with some pointers on how to make the graph? For the third graph, I feel like I am missing something from the procedure. Step 9D says: "Subtract the weight of the empty coffee can from the weight of the water-filled coffee can to arrive at the weight of the water. Record this value in your lab notebook. The purpose of the water-filled coffee can is to help you determine how much heat energy the compost pile is producing." I need to include this in my notebook anyway and it seems it has some potential for a graph. So, I need to know what to put for the third graph. I really need an answer by today if possible. I have no other options to make the graphs and I think that you guys would have the best answer because of your experience. Thank You for taking the time to read this, if you can do this to help me and probably others who may be doing this in the future, I would be in great debt of you guys and I would greatly appreciate it.

Your Science buddy,
Yashaan
donnahardy2
Former Expert
Posts: 2671
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:45 pm

Re: Graph for Heat energy from Compost Project

Post by donnahardy2 »

Hi Yashan,

Welcome to Science Buddies! You have picked an excellent, but challenging project. In this project, you are measuring how much heat your compost pile is producing.

Here is a description of the graphs that would be useful to describe your results:.

You should have a temperature reading of the compost itself over time. Make one graph with time on the x axis and temperature on the y axis. Since this is a science project, the temperature should be in degrees Celsius.. Make sure you title and label the graph so the science fair judges will know what you did.

Here is information from this website on making graphs:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ysis.shtml

However, the temperature graph is not the primary data for this project. The main data for this project is the amount of heat that is generated over a 10 hour period on days 4 and 5 (or whatever day you do the main experiment). If you want, you can graph the increase in temperature of the water during the 10 hour experiment, as described above, however, the main point of the project is to calculate the Joules of energy generated by the compost, using the formulat Q = mCAT.

To do the calculation, multiply the (grams of water in the coffee can) x (4.186 joules per gram) x (increase in temperature in degrees Celsius from time 0 to 10 hours). Your answer is in joules. This is your main data, so include this as the centerpiece of your results section.

Your results section could include a table with the basic data. This includes are the grams of water used, the beginning temperature at time zero, and the ending temperature at 10 hours for each experiment.

Does this help? Please ask more questions if you are still not certain what to do.

Donna Hardy
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