Name: Maleeha Bulla

Materials And Their Ability To Insulate

Introduction
The question being investigated is what material out of the options (shredded paper, cleaning
cloth, foam packaging, bubble wrap and cotton wool) is best at insulating.
It is important to investigate this because insulation is a way of saving energy and reduces the
amount of greenhouse gas emissions are emitted. So, investigating which material insulates the
best assists in figuring out how we would save energy instead of for example needing to warm up
our cup of tea every time it becomes cold because it was left out for too long. In addition, it
provides us with more information on how heat works.
It is known that Insulation is a type of material that prevents heat or sound from travelling from
one place to another. It forms a barrier between the hot and cold objects that decreases heat
transfer by reflecting thermal radiation or reducing thermal conduction and convection between
them. The insulation will be more or less effective depending on the barrier material.
Insulation can be achieved in a variety of ways, but the most common way is to use materials that
are made up of millions of small air pockets.

 Air is an excellent insulator because it does not readily allow heat to travel through it, and
trapped pockets of air are responsible for most types of insulation's high thermal
resistance.
 Air is a gaseous substance; its spread-out molecular arrangement helps to resist heat
transfer to some extent.
Creating air pockets is one approach to reduce convection. This insulation can then prevent heat
from going into as well as out of an object. Heat cannot easily move from one air pocket to
another if the air pockets inside the insulating material are separated from one another. Heat can
escape more easily through materials with small air pockets.

 Thermal insulators are barriers that transmit heat poorly, whereas materials that
conduct heat well have a low insulating capability.

Aim
To determine what material (shredded paper, cleaning cloth, foam packaging, bubble wrap and
cotton wool) is best at insulating the water by measuring which material has the lowest
temperature change.
Hypothesis
If the bubble wrap is used to insulate the boiled water, then the amount of heat will stay high
causing the temperatures to be the highest. This is because the air pockets inside the bubble wrap
are separated from each other, heat flow from one air pocket to another cannot happen easily.
Equipment
- Safety Glasses
- Lab Coat
- Kettle
- 240ml of Water
- 6 Beakers
- shredded paper
 Name: Maleeha Bulla
- cleaning cloth
- foam packaging
- bubble wrap
- cotton wool
- Thermometer
- Measuring cylinder
- 6 Test tubes
- Stopwatch

Safety

Risk Explanation Management

Major or minor burn When pouring the boiled water To prevent this from causing any
caused by boiled water into the measuring cylinder hot burns when handling hot
water may spill and come in equipment, pay close attention to
contact with the subject hot water and handle equipment
carefully, e.g., use test tube
holders.
Cuts or scratches When placing the beaker or the Handle glassware equipment
caused by broken glass thermometer on the bench, the carefully to prevent further
(if a test tube or glass equipment may break with breakage; alert a supervising
beaker is broken) specific actions teacher instead of risking
(further) injury; take basic safety
precautions when handling
glassware.
Independent variable: The different types of insulation used such as shredded paper, cleaning
cloth, foam packaging, bubble wrap and cotton wool
Dependent variable: the temperature of the boiled water (in degrees Celsius)
Controlled variables:
- the amount of water used
- the amount time given for the material to insulate
- same thermometer
Method
1. Place test tube in the middle of the beaker
2. Surround the test tube with insulation material in beaker and ensure to leave little to no
gaps
3. Fill kettle with a sufficient amount of water
4. Boil water using kettle
5. Measure 40ml of boiled water with measuring cylinder
6. Pour 40ml of boiled water into the test tube located in the middle of the insulation material
7. Place thermometer in the test tube and measure temperature after 5 minutes (use
stopwatch)
8. record results by reading final temperature on thermometer
9. repeat steps 1-8 four more times with same insulation material
10. repeat steps 1-9 with different insulation material.

Results

Temperature of water after 5 minutes (℃)

 Name: Maleeha Bulla
Insulation material Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Average
Control (no insulation) 43 42 43 40 41 42
Cotton wool 66 66 67 65 66 66
Bubble wrap 74 73 72 73 73 73
Foam packaging 50 48 51 51 50 50
Shredded paper 60 59 58 61 60 60
Cleaning cloth 65 65 66 65 64 65
 Name: Maleeha Bulla

Discussion
 Name: Maleeha Bulla
The experiment coincided with the hypothesis. The hypothesis stated that if the bubble wrap is
used to insulate the boiled water, then the amount of heat will stay high causing the temperatures
to be the highest. This theory is supported in the results as bubble wrap had the highest
temperatures (the average being 73℃) out of all the insulation materials. While as cotton wool
had the second highest temperatures with an average of 66 however, the cleaning cloth only had
a difference of 1℃. Shredded paper had a temperature average of 60℃ while foam packaging had
a low temperature average of 50℃ meaning both of these materials have low insulation capability.
The control (no insulation) had an average of 42℃ causing it to be the lowest temperature but the
temperature is still considerable, which means that air is still a somewhat good insulator.
The reason the results where this way is because materials consisting with air are good insulators.
Because air is a gaseous substance, its spread-out molecular arrangement helps to resist heat
transfer to some extent. Materials such as bubble wrap, fabric, foam packaging or wool, gave high
temperatures as they have a lot of air pockets. Air in general is a good thermal insulator, but it can
transmit heat through convection. However, if the air pockets inside the insulating material are
separated from each other, heat flow from one air pocket to another cannot happen easily. This is
the reason why the highest temperature was the boiled water surrounded by bubble wrap.
Materials like paper and foil make it easier for the heat to escape because they don't have many
air pockets.
This experiment has a high-level reliability. Such was due as each insulation material was repeated
5 times, multiple sets of results help in estimating the variability of the results. Having conducted
the experiment five times gave us various temperatures that were close to each other. The validity
of this experiment is medium level the controlled variables were maintained throughout the
experiment with the same amount of water and same amount of time given for the material to
insulate are all kept consistent. However, the fact that the same thermometer is being used for
everything makes the experiment less valid. This causes the results to be unreliable as the
thermometer could still be warm after a while if the experiments are conducted straight after one
another. This experiment tested which material was best at insulating boiled water. An
improvement for the next time this investigation is conducted would be using a different
thermometer for each experiment conducted or wait until the thermometer so that results are
considered more reliable.
Conclusion
The hypothesis was proven correct as the results for the water surrounded by bubble wrap had
the highest average of 73℃.
 Name: Maleeha Bulla
Question 1: Explain why it is of economic benefit for houses to use appropriate insulation.
Discuss and evaluate the implications of this.
A well-insulated home comes with various economic benefits. Such as the fact that it reduces
energy bills and expands the insulation industry. Expanding the insulation industry contributes to
the economy vastly. Insulation is used to minimize heat loss from the house, so that it stays warm
in winter while as in summer it is applied to keep heat from entering in to keep your home cool.
Insulation essentially is an investment as it decreases costs on your heating or cooling energy
expenses. It aids in less use of an air conditioner, which causes less energy to be used. The less
energy being used means the less charges of electricity is sent. This frees up individuals income
leadinging to the individual beign able to purchase in other areas.
Insulation assists in boosting the economy as the purchase of insulation contributes to the
industry. The insulation industry creates about 10,000 jobs just for Australia alone. This factors
into stimulating the economy majorly, additionally it is putting more money in the pockets of
households and business owners.
However, appropriate use of insulation in houses could be a major factor to the downfall of energy
companies. Even though insulation does lessen the need for energy, the energy companies won’t
be getting the amount of income they were getting beforehand.
Question 2: There are strong environmental reasons for society generally to use good
insulation. Discuss and evaluate the implications of two of these reasons.
Insulating has a variety of economic effects, but the environmental impact of various insulation
alternatives is also essential, especially in this era of sustainable green awareness. For example,
insulation reduces carbon emissions and insulation materials are mostly consisted of recycled
materials which leads to less amount of waste in landfills.
Insulation helps to reduce the need of an air conditioner, which Aids in energy and Electricity
conservation. All properly-installed insulation materials help to improve energy efficiency by
reducing the amount of energy needed to heat and cool your house, which conserves non-
renewable fuel supplies. Insulation aids the environment by reducing the use of natural gas and
electricity to heat and cool buildings, resulting in lower emissions of pollutants such as carbon
dioxide and nitrogen oxide, among others.
Another major environmental impact of insulation is the fact that generally insulation materials
are manufactured with recycled materials. Some insulating materials have a high percentage of
recycled resources. This lessens the demand for natural resources around the planet. As well as
the decrease of the pressures on landfills, which are rapidly filling up, this is because the recycled
materials used within insulation has already been recycled and is at the end of its life cycle.
To summarise, insulation improves the environment significantly since it typically reduces energy
consumption, hence decreasing demands on local utilities that rely on fossil fuels to generate
electricity and reducing waste in landfills.

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 Name: Maleeha Bulla
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