Physics Investigation Essay, Research Paper

Physics

Investigation How does

insulation effect the loss of heat? In

this investigation I am going to try and find out what difference it makes if

you wrap newspaper round a beaker with hot water in it and see if the heat loss

is different at different thickness layers of newspaper. ?????? I carried out a preliminary experiment

and found out that by only increasing the layers of thickness by 1 each time,

that wont make enough difference to make a good graph because the trends will

be too similar.? So I chose to increase

the layers by five each time.Apparatus ·

Beaker ·

Stopwatch ·

Newspaper ·

Polystyrene ·

Thermometer ·

Kettle I

will also take a number of safety precautions whilst conducting the

investigation. I will ensure the kettle is used safely through out the

experiment, and hot water is transferred securely. . I will use protection when

handling the boiling tubes when the hot water is present. Safety precautions

are needed because I am dealing with hot water, which can scald. The following

things need to be acknowledged to, in order to keep this experiment safe.? I will be careful not to knock over the

beaker with the hot water in. I will be careful not to knock over other peoples

beakers. Care is needed when pouring hot water. I will not run with the beaker

of hot water. ?????? To make this a fair test I will have to

do the following.? I will keep the

volume of water the same.? I will wrap

the beaker with newspaper in the same way each time because some ways can

effect the heat loss more that others.?

I will place the thermometer in the beaker at the same place each

time.? I will place the beakers on

polystyrene when they are being tested because it insulates the heat.? I will use the same type of newspaper for

each experiment.? I will use the same

size beaker, which is made out of the same material.? The factors I will change are.?

I will change the layers of newspapers on the beaker. ?????? I will get 6 beakers.? I will record two at a time.? I will put polystyrene on the top and bottom

of the beakers when I have filled the beakers up with 150 ml of boiling

water.? There is a little hole in the

polystyrene on the top of the beaker to stick the thermometer through.? I will then take results every five minutes

for a total of 30 minutes.? There will

be 6 readings taken for each newspaper layer range.? I will record 6 different layers.? 0 layers, 5 layers, 10 layers, 15 layers, 20 layers and 25

layers.? This should give me a good

range of results. ?????? I predict that the more layers of

newspaper round the beaker, the less quickly the water will lose heat.? I say this because the more layers there

are, the more air pockets.? If there are

more air pockets the more hot air is trapped in the newspaper.? This air acts as an insulator.? I also predict that more heat will be lost

at the start of the experiment because the water is hotter, so there is more of

a heat difference between the inside and outside.? Therefore, more heat is conducted out the beaker because of the

cooler temperature outside the beaker.?

But as the temperatures even out the heat loss gets less, because less

heat is being conducted away from the beaker.?

So you should see a graph looking like this.Results (Temp

in C) Minutes 0

layers 5

layers 10

layers 15

layers 20

layers 25

layers 1 77 78 76 78 76 77 2 76 76 75 77 75 76 3 74 75 74 76 74 75 4 73 74 73 75 73 75 5 72 73 72 74 73 74 6 70 72 71 74 72 73 7 69 71 70 73 71 72 8 68 70 70 72 70 71 9 67 69 69 71 69 71 10 66 68 68 70 68 70 11 65 66 67 69 68 69 12 64 66 66 69 67 68 13 63 65 65 68 66 67 14 63 64 65 67 65 67 15 62 63 64 66 64 66 16 61 62 63 65 64 65 17 60 61 62 64 63 64 18 59 61 61 63 63 63 19 59 60 60 62 62 62 20 58 59 59 61 62 62 21 57 59 58 60 61 62 22 56 58 57 60 60 61 23 55 57 57 59 59 60 24 55 56 56 58 58 59 25 54 55 55 57 58 58 Analysing evidence and

conclusion Mt

results went down in a good trend.? All

apart from the 25 layers which cooler quicker than the 20 layers.? All the results are clear that they

gradually decrease in the graph, In a fairly straight line.? The more they are insulated, the slower the

temperature falls.? It is because the

newspaper traps air in between it and the beaker, this insulates the beaker and

traps hot air from escaping. Evaluation My

results were good. I conclude that the more layers around the beaker, the

slower the temperature falls.? I could

have measured stuff more accurately, but I didn?t have time. ???