InsulationIntroductionThe experimenter is testing on denim, cotton T-shirt material, woolfabric, thermal underwear, polyester fabric, and a Ziplock bag with no insulator. From research the experimenter learned that wool is a fine soft wavy hair thatforms all or part of the protective coat of a sheep.
Since ancient times it washarvested to provide clothing and is an important part in textile trade becauseof its insulation. Woolen fabric is when the woolen system uses short or mixedlong and short fiber where no combing is done. It has a rough appearance and ismost suitable for blankets, overcoats, and tweeds. Denim which the experimenteris also testing is the material used to make blue jeans and is currently one ofthe world’s most popular fabrics. It is fairly heavy and is made with a bluecotton warp and a white cotton filling (Groilers, 1996). The thermal underwearis duofold, with an outer layer made of 65% cotton, 25% wool, and 10% nylon, andan inner layer made of 100% cotton.
It’s the winter again and the weather is becoming colder. Each morningmany people wonder what to wear to stay as warm as possible, but they aren’tsure which material will keep them warmest. The experiment was chosen to seewhich clothing insulator retains the most heat. “Insulation is material thatprotects against heat, cold, electricity, or sound. ” (Science Encyclopedia,1984). In this case the insulation will be protecting against a cold temperature.
The hypothesis is if denim, cotton T-shirt material, wool fabric,polyester fabric, thermal underwear, and a Ziplock bag with out insulatingmaterial are tested to see which one retains the most heat, then wool fabricwill retain the most heat because it holds an important place in today’s textiletrade because of its good insulation and the fact that it comes from theprotective coat of sheep who need to stay warm and use that as their insulator. ProcedureThe first thing the experimenter does is fill the inside of five, gallon-sizedZiplock bags with the insulation material so it is one centimeters thick allaround. Leave the sixth Ziplock bag empty because it will serve as the controlgroup. Then fasten the insulating materials to the inside of the gallon sizedZiplock bag with adhesive tape.
Next the experimenter boils ten pints of tap water and let it cool until(using the candy thermometer) the temperature drops to 49 degrees Celsius. Thenimmediately fill each of the six canning jars with equal amounts of the water. Immediately after that drop a regular thermometer into each jar, and cap ittightly and as quick as you can. Put the six jars into the six Ziplock bags andseal them.
Then put the six jars which are inside the Ziplock bags in therefrigerator for two hours and take the temperature readings every 15 minutes. Repeat all these steps two more times. Then look and compare your readings andnote how they changed over time and graph your data and make a conclusion. ResultsThe purpose of this experiment was to find the effect of different formsof insulation on how much heat each type retains to show the best insulators forkeeping the human body warm.
The mean had thermal underwear retaining the mostheat at the end of the two hours. The mean temperatures at the end of the twohours were denim 27 degrees Celsius, cotton T-shirt material 27, wool fabric 28,thermal underwear 28. 67, polyester fabric 27. 33, and no insulation 19. 67 degreesCelsius.
The range at the end of two hours was Denim had a range of zero,Cotton T-shirt material had two, Wool Fabric zero, Thermal Underwear three,Polyester Fabric had one, no insulation had a range of one. The range was notbig, so the experiment was accurate. Basically the experiment showed mostclothing insulations retained near the same amount of heat. Thermal underwearretained the most heat by an average of about one degree over the otherinsulations. Another major result was all insulations retain much more heatthan no insulation.
Data TableConclusionThe purpose of this experiment was to find the effect of different formsof insulation on how much heat each type retains to show the best insulators forkeeping the human body warm. The hypothesis is if denim, cotton T-shirtmaterial, wool fabric, polyester fabric, thermal underwear, and a Ziplock bagwith out insulating material are tested to see which one retains the most heat,then wool fabric will retain the most heat because it holds an important placein today’s textile trade because of its good insulation and the fact that itcomes from the protective coat of sheep who need to stay warm and use that astheir insulator. The hypothesis was not supported because wool fabric had anaverage of two-thirds of a degree Celsius less than thermal underwear at the endof the two hours of testing. Thermal Underwear retained more heat because itwas designed to keep you as warm as possible. Another major result was all theinsulations were around the same temperature (27-28. 67 degrees Celsius) at theend of two hours of testing and the bag without insulation was only 19 degreesCelsius.
The experimenter thinks this is because all clothes has insulation asa high priority and thermal underwear has insulation as its highest priority. The experimenter thinks an experimental error is he always took the temperaturesin the same order. The difference in seconds could change the data by a degree. The experimenter could improve this by rotating or making the measuring orderrandomly. Other areas of study can be the effect of the amount of layers ofinsulation on how much heat is retained.
Bibliography______. “Wool”. Word Search. Groliers. 1995.
______. “Cotton”. Netscape. 1995. Bochinski, Julianne, Science Fair Projects, Wiley Science Editions, NewYork,1991
