Science Solar Cooker Project Work
Investiage effect of cup material on temperature change
Materials & Methods
You will also need cups of different materials, preferably of same sizes.
1.Fill the cups with equal volumes of water.
2.Measure water temperature in the cup first before placing the cup into the solar cooker.
3.Leave under the sun for a couple of minutes(for this one we used 5 mins)
4.Take out cup and measure temperature again.
5.Record temperature.
6.Repeat steps 2-5 for the other cups.
Table
Title: To investigate the effect of the material of the cup on the increase in temperature.
Hypothesis: The water gets heated to the highest temperature in the aluminum cup
Independent Variable: Material of cup -- glass, plastic, ceramic, aluminiumDependent Variable: The water temperature at the end of experiment
Constants: Volume of water (100ml), duration of experiment (5 mins), exposed surface area, angle the flap was raised.
Control: Area of exposed surface area
No. of trials: 4 trials
Information not reflected on table.
Glass: 33(Control), 34(Attempt1), 37(Attempt2)
Ceramic: 33(Control), 34(Attempt1), 33.5(Attempt2)
Plastic: 33(Control), 36(Attempt1), 34(Attempt2)
Aluminium: 32(Control), 37(Attempt1), 34(Attempt2)
Temperature After Experiment
Glass: 34(Control), 35(Attempt1), 39(Attempt2)
Ceramic: 33.5(Control), 35(Attempt1), 34(Attempt2)
Plastic: 33(Control), 37(Attempt1), 35(Attempt2)
Aluminium: 33.5(Control), 38(Attempt1), 35(Attempt2)
Analysis and Discussion
Scientific Explanation: Even though aluminum is a better conductor of heat than glass, the water in the glass has a higher temperature than the water in the aluminum cup. We think this is because the weather condition on that day is not very stable (one minute is sunny, after a few minutes it become cloudy)
Since aluminum is a good conductor of heat and conducts heat very fast, it will be affected with the slight changes of temperature when there is no sun (will lose heat when not under the sun)
Glass on the other hand, is a poor conductor of heat and would not be as badly affected by the change in surrounding temperature and sunlight. And being a poor conductor of heat, glass would gain and lose heat slowly, thus retaining heat.
Therefore, the water in the glass will have the highest temperature.
Conclusion
And also make sure that the sun is VERY strong (no clouds in the sky) as the clouds might block out the sun. We should also conduct more trails of our experiment to make our results accurate and reliable.
Duty List
Ziyuan -- Supplied us with the cups.
Felicia -- Safe kept the solar cooker
Ling Yan -- Took temperature on the experiment day and helped with the flyer.
Wen Qi -- Took video and did the flyer.
Acknowledgement
Our parents for allowing us to meet up during the March holidays to do the experiment.
Fellow groupmates for tolerating us.
The experiment wouldn't be a success without them.