Week Eleven

This week our thermos project were due. When we first got this assignment I had no idea what I was going to do or how I was going to make it. So I started doing some research online about what were good insulators that I could use to keep the cup warm as long as possible. Katie L. was my partner and we kept exchanging ideas until we came up with a rough idea of what we wanted to get. For the supplies we went Lowes. We went searching around the store trying to find some metal cylinder that fit our vision. We ended up finding a metal cylinder and a smaller one to go inside the bigger one where the cup of water would be secured in. To close the top and bottom of the metal cylinder we found drain caps that we put foil and tape over to make sure the holes were covered up. We then cover the entire thing with tape and foil and then another layer of tape. to insulate the our thermos further we packed the empty space between the two metal cylinders with newspaper and tape. When we got to class we had some trouble getting started bc our water would not get all the way to the starting temperature, which was eighty degrees. Due to that we didn't get to take all thirty measurements. When we finally got the hot water inside our thermos it started off well but eventually started going down a few degrees which made Katie and I panic hoping that it wouldn't go down anymore. We realized that since we covered our lid with so much foil and tape and newspaper that the top wouldn't go all the way on. That could have been part of the reason our water cooled off alittle. I never really understood how thermos' kept liquids so warm but after this experiment I can understand how they work better than I did before.