Effect of Initial Starting temp on hand warmers

[deleted-776631]

Why would the highest initial starting temperature on a hand warmer produce the most heat generation and have the longest-lasting time? This might be false but since it's a hypothesis, I need to explain why this would be the case. Thanks!

[deleted-470315]

Hi Zogl,

Is this the hypothesis you've decided to test? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about a complex analysis of it, your experiment will tell you if this idea is correct!

The most important question right now is: What do you think?

Your intuition is telling you that higher initial temperature might generate more heat. Why would this be? What about having a low starting temperature might make it harder for the hand warmer to heat up? Where is the heat going or being transferred once it is released by the hand warmer? How is the hand warmer creating heat? Is the reaction that generates heat affected by the starting temperature?

Hopefully those thought questions help you think of something to guide your hypothesis, even if it ends up being incorrect.

Let me know what you come up with!

Erin