Insulation project didn't turn out as we hoped
Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 2:01 pm
Hi, my 5th grade son is working on his science project with insulation.
His Question is: Which type of insulation (cotton, wool, or fat) slows down the heat loss compared to no insulation? We divided a shoe box in 4 equal parts, and placed a canning jar into each space. We filled gaps in each sapce with those insulation materials with one gap left unfilled (no insulation) . We poured tap water into the jars and place lids on them, and stored the whole box in a freezer. recorded water temperature every 20 mins for 100 minutes.
The result is:
the temperature in a jar with no insulation went down steadily and reached 32F after 80min. Other three went down slowly and reached 50F after 80 min, but the way the temperature went down in those three jars were almost same, no much difference at all. When my son made a line graph to show how the temperture went down , those three line are almost one thick line. We were expecting to see wool keeping heat better that cotton, and possibly lard ( as fat) is the best material to keep you warm. But, They were all same. We are very disppointed to see no difference.
We are wondering if our procedure was not good. Could you tell us please what went wrong in our project? We would really appreciate that. We would like to conclude this project suggesting what we could have done to see more reasonable results.
Thank you very much!
His Question is: Which type of insulation (cotton, wool, or fat) slows down the heat loss compared to no insulation? We divided a shoe box in 4 equal parts, and placed a canning jar into each space. We filled gaps in each sapce with those insulation materials with one gap left unfilled (no insulation) . We poured tap water into the jars and place lids on them, and stored the whole box in a freezer. recorded water temperature every 20 mins for 100 minutes.
The result is:
the temperature in a jar with no insulation went down steadily and reached 32F after 80min. Other three went down slowly and reached 50F after 80 min, but the way the temperature went down in those three jars were almost same, no much difference at all. When my son made a line graph to show how the temperture went down , those three line are almost one thick line. We were expecting to see wool keeping heat better that cotton, and possibly lard ( as fat) is the best material to keep you warm. But, They were all same. We are very disppointed to see no difference.
We are wondering if our procedure was not good. Could you tell us please what went wrong in our project? We would really appreciate that. We would like to conclude this project suggesting what we could have done to see more reasonable results.
Thank you very much!