Science CBA 1:
By Cathal Acreman
Topic: Water
Title: What materials will insulate heat in water the
most efficiently?
Background Research:
• I researched what equipment would be needed to
complete this experiment.
• I found that the rate of cooling for water is
dependent on the amount of water, the size of the
container and the surface area of the water.
• I researched household materials that I could use to
insulate the heat in this experiment.
Experiment: An investigation to determine the speed
at which water cools from 90°-70°.
Apparatus:
• Beaker.
• Thermometer.
• Kettle.
• Material (For The Experiment).
• Pen and paper to record results.
• Rubber bands.
• Water.
Hypothesis: If the beaker is wrapped in a material the
rate at which the water cools will decrease.
Prediction: If the hypothesis is correct, the tea towel
will insulate the heat in the water most effectively.
Health And Safety:
• Take great care when handling hot water.
• Don’t touch beakers until they are cooled.
• Keep glass beakers away from the edge of the table.
• If a beaker breaks, take care with broken glass.
• Don’t hit the thermometer of the glass beaker incase
either cracks.
Variables:
Control:
• The temperature at which the water is measured.
• The beaker used is cool before starting an
experiment with a new material.
• The coverage of the beaker in the material.
• The thermometer used should be kept the same.
Independent:
• The material used in the experiment.
Dependent:
• The time taken for the water to reach 70 degrees
from 90 degrees.
Method:
1. Boil your kettle.
2. Wrap your material around the beaker using 2
rubber bands.
3. Pour 500ml of boiling water into the beaker using
the supplied increments.
4. Place your thermometer into the water.
5. Once the water has reached 90 degrees, start your
timer.
6. Stop the timer once the water has reached 70
degrees.
7. Record the time it took.
8. Using great caution pour out your water into a sink.
9. Rince out the beaker with cold water to make sure
there is no heat left in the glass that could be
affecting the waters rate of cooling.
10. Repeat this process with each of your materials.
Results:
As we can see from these results, the newspaper worked
the best in insulating the heat in the water and the tin
foil worked the least effectively.
Analysis:
From the table of results and bar chart, we can see that
the newspaper worked best, insulating the heat for 21
minutes and 51 seconds. And the tin foil worked the
worst retaining heat for only 14 minutes and 2 seconds.
We see that there was an average overall time for the 6
materials of 16 minutes and 18 seconds.
The full order in which the materials were most effective
at insulating the waters temperature goes as following:
Place: Material: Time: Difference:
1. Newspaper 21:51.52 -Interval-
2. Pillowcase 16:47.68 +5:04
3. Wool Wrap 16:00.54 +0:47
4. T-Shirt 14:16.52 +1:44
5. Tea Towel 14:11.19 +0:05
6. Tin Foil 14:02.24 +0:09
Conclusion:
Now knowing my results, I can conclude that if a material
is wrapped around a beaker of water, the water inside
will be insulated better than if there was no wrap.
This means I can accept my hypothesis that if the beaker
is wrapped in a material the rate at which the water
cools will decrease.
Some limitations such as the limit of time to carry out my
experiment more times to make my results more
accurate may have affected my result.
Other limitations include human error, such as materials
not being wrapped at equal thicknesses, steam getting
caught by folded materials, and being inaccurate with
when exactly the water was at 90 degrees and when it
was at 70 degrees also may have come into effect.
Reflection:
I enjoyed carrying out this CBA as it allowed me to
conduct an experiment without the aid of my teacher.
It also allowed me to see where I made mistakes and
where I could possibly do better if this experiment was
completed again.
Although I am satisfied with my conclusion, I feel like
more trials of my experiment would make my results
more reliable.
One thing that didn’t work well at first was heating the
water to 90 degrees, first I used a beaker and a hotplate,
but this proved to take up too much time, so I scrapped
that idea and used a kettle instead.
If I was to complete my experiment again, I could alter it
slightly by measuring the temperature of the water after
a certain time instead of the time it takes for the water
to reach a set temperature.
By doing my experiment I used skills like scientific
method, planning and problem solving. Through planning
an experiment, the equipment needed and a hypothesis
Aswell as producing ways to fasten the material to the
glass etc.
