Thermal Insulation Required Pratical

Describe the how to compare the effectiveness of different materials as thermal insulators

1)Place a small beaker inside a larger beaker

2)Use a kettle to boil water and transfer 80cm3 of the hot water into the small beaker

3)Use a piece of cardboard as a lid for the large beaker and the lid must have a hole for a thermometer

4)Place a thermometer through a hole in the cardboard lid and the bulb if the thermometer must be in the hot water

5)Record the starting temperature of water and start a stopwatch

6)Record the temperature of the water every three to five minutes

7)Repeat experiment with same volume of hot water however this time we use an insulating material(e.g bubble wrap) to fill the gap between the two beakers

8)Test a range of different insulating materials like cotton wool and polystyrene balls, we should the same mass of insulating material each case

9)Plot a table and cooling curves

What is the independent variable in previous experiment

The type of insulating material

What is the Dependent variable in experiment

The temperature

What are the control variables in experiment

-Volume of water

-Mass of insulating material

-Starting temperature of the water for each experiment

Explain how to investigate how the thickness of a material affects the thermal insulation

1)Start with a beaker containing 80cm3 of hot water

2)Meaure the temperature of water every three to fifteen minutes

3)Repeat the experiment but this time we wrap two layers of newspaper around the beaker

4)Then repeat the experiment two more times using four layers and then six layers of newspapers

What is the independent variables in previous experiment

-Number of layers of newspapers

What is the dependent variables of previous experiment

The temperature

What are the control variables of previous experiment

-The starting temperature of water every three

-Volume of water

What should we find out from this experiment?

The thicker the insulating layer, the small the temperature change of the water so less energy is transferred. This means thicker layers make better thermal insulators