Investigating Bubble Wrap as an Insulator Essay

Apparatus   Kettle Water   Small Plastic Bag What are we going to do? We are going to experiment for which bubble wrap or bag is the best insulator. We are doing this experiment because to prove my research in the hypothesis. We will test the big bubble wrap, small bubble wrap, a plastic bag and just the steel can. To extend the experiment we will test the bubbles facing inwards and outwards of the steel can. This will be used for the big bubble wrap and small bubble wrap. 1. First we will boil up some water in a kettle. 2. Then, we will measure the 140ml in a measuring cylinder. This is because we won’t to know how easily heat energy can escape through the can. 3. We shall pour the 140ml of hot water on the steel can. 4. We will put a plastic lid on top of the can. A thermometer will be put through a pierced hole into the middle of the plastic lid. 5. Later we will measure the temperature. 6. As soon as the temperature falls to 84 degree, we will start the timing. 7. We will record the temperature every minute for 10 minutes. After ten minutes the experiment will be done. 8. We will repeat the experiment to find an average temperature for every minute. 9. Finally we well repeat this experiment for the big bubble wrap facing in and out of the can, the small bubble wrap facing in and out of the can and the plastic bag around the steel can. We have chosen to start every experiment at 84 degrees because we think the water may not reach temperatures as high as 90 degrees. For a fair test we will measure the temperature at every minute to make equal spacing of time between each reading of time. ANALYSIS Apparatus Small Plastic Bag Method In my experiment I kept many of the things I was going to do, the same. But after finding a couple of difficulties in the experiment I had to alter a couple of things. They were: –   The process of measuring the hot water. I found out that the temperature of the water decreased rapidly so I could not start the experiment at 84 degrees. So I changed the process of measuring the water. Instead of measuring the water after boiling it up, I measured the water before boiling it up. This meant that I had to put 5ml of extra water in the kettle because a tiny bit of the water would have been evaporated.   Inserting more water into the steel can. I found out that the steel can was not being filled to the top. This meant that the air between the lid and water had been transferring heat energy by convection. I stopped this by adding 10 extra millilitres of water into the steel can. Conclusion In my results table I have observed that the big bubble wrap was the best insulator. The small bubble wrap was a worse insulator than the big bubble wrap and although the plastic bag was the worst insulator, it was the best insulator. The results of the experiment with no covering on the steel can did not fit the graph. This is because the graph showed that the experiment with no covering on the steel can was a good insulator. I would have thought that no covering on the steel can would have helped the heat energy escape. The only explanation for why the graph showed that the experiment was a good insulator is that a big, thick object would have been near the steel can preventing from escaping so easily. In my prediction, I said that the big bubble wrap would be the best insulator. This is because there is a lot gas in each bubble preventing heat energy from escaping so easily. The atoms in a gas are little and very spread out which makes the vibration of one atom to another very hard. I also said that the plastic bag was a good conductor because the heat energy only had go through the steel can and plastic bag. There was not much gas between the steel can and plastic bag together because the plastic bag was close to the steel can. Heat energy can go through a solid easily by conduction because the atoms are close together making the vibrating of each atom easy. This theory has been proved by my results and graph. I decided to record the temperature at every minute in each the experiment, because then I would have a wide range of results of the temperature decreasing. EVALUATION There were some things that were not fair which made the experiment go wrong a little. They were:- 1. The reading of the temperature. Sometimes I would not reading the temperature because the marks on the thermometer were squashed together so I could not read the numbers so easily. If I had a high-tech piece of equipment (e. g. a computer) then I could connect a thermometer to the computer and just read the temperature off the computer. 2. The reading of the temperature APPROXIMATELY every minute. Most of the time I could not read the temperature exactly every minute. Sometimes I was reading the temperature before the minute and sometimes after the minute. This effected my results because some results read the same and some had a big decrease (like the point at the orange circle). I could get solve this problem by also using a computer and connecting a stopwatch to it so the temperature could be given at exactly every minute. 3. The rounding off of a number after being read. Many of the numbers that I read were not whole numbers. So I had to result to rounding the number off. This effected my results because again some results read the same and some had a big decrease. If the thermometer had smaller marks telling you the numbers then I could have precise results. We could result to using a computer. I was not happy with my results with my results for â€Å"no covering† at 1 minute (marked orange circle) because of all the reasons above. These reasons are why my graph a bit out of shape. Although my graph was not accurate, my results were reliable to prove my prediction. My results clearly show that the big bubble wrap was the best insulator (and a bad conductor) and the experiment with the bag was the worst insulator (and a good conductor). I could make my results better by repeating the whole experiment again but this time using all the suggested I have given. If I were to do this then I would get the accurate results and prove that the experiment â€Å"without covering† would be the worst insulator. I would do the experiment three or four times to get a better and more reliable average. My results are not sufficient to prove my conclusion. I think I would have to do the experiment with â€Å"no covering† again to at least make my conclusion right.