Week 11

Week 11 in chemistry was a short week, composed solely of our thermos tests. On Monday, our thermoses were due, and we ran our first tests. I worked with Emily Joseph, and our thermos ended up pretty well. We stuffed a two liter pop bottle with pink insulating foam, and once we got to class Monday we finished it up. We placed the 16oz styrofoam cup inside, and then wrapped the outside of the bottle with aluminum foil (shiny side facing in). Once we put the 355mL of 80 degrees Celsius water into the cup, we quickly wrapped aluminum foil on the top, making a lid. We poked a hole in the lid and stuck the thermometer in, beginning our measurements. Our water began at 80 degrees Celsius, and after 15 minutes of taking measurements each minute, our water ended up at 72 degrees Celsius. However, fortunately Mr. Abud let us know at the end of class that we could have another day to make some improvements and test again the next day! So, Emily and I took home our thermos and made some changes. We decided we needed a better cap, so we cut off the top of another 2 liter pop bottle and stuffed that with some insulating foam. We kept the aluminum foil lid on, and just had the bottle top as an addition. Then, we wrapped a layer of insulating foam around the bottle, and then another couple of layers of aluminum foil. In class the next day we put the water in, and placed the lid and cap right back on, and quickly wrapped many layers of aluminum foil around the entire thing. The thermometer was placed in through the hole in the lid and up through the cap. This test, we started at 72 degrees Celsius and after 20 minutes, ended at 65 degrees Celsius. 98.2% of the energy was retained, and I was happy with our results. We'll see how the rest of the class did on Monday as we share our results.