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Which Kind of Wood Burns Slower? *

Difficulty
Time Required Short (2-5 days)
Safety Adult supervision required.
*Note: This is an abbreviated Project Idea, without notes to start your background research, a specific list of materials, or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated Project Ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a Project Idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk.

Abstract

Do you ever go camping with your family and roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a campfire? If you want your campfire to burn long into the evening, what is the best wood to use? Do research on the necessary conditions/materials to sustain a fire and on the properties of different types of wood. Which properties do you think will be most important for determining how fast the wood burns? For example, how do you think density would be related to burning rate? Why? Measure the density and burning rate of equal-sized samples of different types of wood. For controlled burning conditions, you can either use a torch (with adult supervision) for a specified amount of time (weigh the samples before and after to determine burn rate), or place the wood samples over an evenly-spread bed of white-hot charcoal briquets (time the samples to determine burn rate). (Morgan, 2004; Johansen, 2005; Kelly, 2005)

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Last edit date: 2013-01-10

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