Which Material Is the Best Insulator of Heat Lab

Which Material is the Best Insulator of Heat Lab

Introduction

In class, we performed a lab. The purpose of the lab was to learn what material; cotton, silk or fur was the best insulator of heat. During this frigid time of year, it is necessary to know what materials will keep us warmest outside or inside. Out of the three materials, we predict that fur will be the best insulator of heat. All insulators depend on dividing air (or another gas) into small pockets that cannot pass heat from one to another. Cotton traps air, however, it will not work as effectively as fur unless in thickly woven layers, opposed to one layer of fur. Silk is a good insulating fabric for it absorbs body heat, but is not thick or full of layers. Fur makes a good insulator because it entraps air in many different layers. Each layer of air and fur insulate a little bit and the effect accumulates, more than cotton or silk.

Procedure

First, 225ml of warm water was collected into a glass beaker and the temperature recorded with a temperature probe and into Logger Pro software. The temperature was recorded over a period of one hour before cotton was added. Later, the water was replaced and set to a temperature of a constant degree of 29.6 Celsius. The beaker was surrounded by the cloth and the temperature was recorded for an hour. These steps were repeated for two other materials such as silk and fur

Discussion

Our hypothesis stated that fur will be the best insulator of heat, because it has many thin fibers with air that acts as an insulator, and protects the surrounding air from mixing, which ended up being incorrect. The best insulator of heat turned out to be silk. A reason for this could be because silk is usually in clothing that is meant to keep the body warm. So silk tends to hold in heat, yet be lightweight and comfortable. Following silk was fur and then cotton. What we expected was that the thicker materials would keep more heat, however this was not the case. It actually was the opposite which concluded silk to lose a total of 3.6oC, fur to lose 3.7oC, and cotton to lose a total of 5oC. The reason for this to happen is because the thinner materials have more small air pockets that prevent heat to move through rapidly, which makes insulation even better. The more porous the material, the better the insulator. In other words, the air spaces within the lightweight material capture the heat and stick onto the silk, holding the heat near the body. Silk also happens to be a poor conductor of heat, meaning it's a great insulator. There were some things that could have caused our data to be a little inaccurate and off, as well as some things that could have gone wrong in this lab. While testing another material, the beaker of water could have been at an off temperature that didn't match up with the others.