Energy 47

Investigating Method

insulators
Some materials, like metals, conduct
thermal energy well. Other materials are
poor conductors (good insulators). These
materials can be used to reduce the
energy transferred from a hot object to its
surroundings or to keep something cool by
reducing the transfer of energy into it.
1. Set up the apparatus as shown below. All the beakers must be
the same size, and you should try to keep the thickness of the
insulation the same.
2. When you’re ready to start, pour the same volume of hot
water from a tea kettle into each beaker. Put the
thermometers in and start the stopwatch.
3. Write down the starting temperatures, then record the
temperature of the water in each beaker every minute
for 10 minutes.

Investigating insulation
You can test the insulating
properties of different Thermometer
01:00
materials by using them Cardboard lid to
to insulate beakers of hot reduce heat loss
water. The best insulator Stopwatch
is the one that keeps the
water warm the longest.
You also need to measure
how quickly the temperature
falls with no insulation.

! Bubble wrap Fleece No insulation

Teacher supervision
required

Beakers containing hot water

Results

Plot the data for all three beakers on the same graph.
Draw a smooth curve through the points for each Bubble wrap
beaker. The graph should show that both the bubble
Fleece
wrap and the fleece kept the water warmer than
No insulation
Temperature

having no insulation and that bubble wrap was best at

keeping the water hot. You could have carried out this
investigation more simply by recording just the start Incorrect
and end temperatures. However, if you’d also made an reading
incorrect final reading like the one in this graph, you
might then have wrongly concluded that bubble wrap
has the same insulating properties as fleece.

Time