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Lab Analysis

In this lab we tested different materials you would use in a house to see how these different
materials deal with heat. We tested insulation, exterior wall materials, interior wall materials,
flooring materials, and roofing materials. In this data we found which materials had a highest
heat capacity and which had the lowest heat capacity.
High heat capacity materials: Materials that heat up and cool down very quickly. Do not hold
heat well.
Insulation: Cotton
Exterior materials: Corrugated Metal
Interior materials: White Drywall
Flooring: Maple Chocolate
Roofing: Rubber
Low heat capacity materials: Materials that heat up slowly and cool down slowly. Hold heat very
well.
Insulation: Fiberglass and Rigid Foam
Exterior materials: Red brick and Redwood
Interior materials: Redbrick
Flooring: Tile
Roofing : Corrugated metal
Some of the errors that may have occurred in was mainly during testing were things like
inconsistent timing, longer time duration, different sized materials, and testing on different days.
We should have made many of these errors constants, making our data more accurate.
Some future experiments and labs we can do separately or incorporated into this lab is to
test these materials in different conditions like moisture, different colored materials, and angle of
the sun/seasonal changes. In addition, put more details on the procedure about placement of
the thermometer.

CLEAR paragraph
The best insulation we tested was the fiberglass. We tested each insulation material by
heating a metal plate to 240 degrees fahrenheit then put two wood blocks on the plate, on top
and bottom. Then surrounded it by the chosen insulation material then put in a cardboard box.
We left each box sealed for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes were done we took the
temperature of the hot plate to see how warm the insulation kept the plate. The plates initial
temperature was 240 degrees fahrenheit and then dropped to 107 degrees after 10 minutes.
The second best insulator was rigid foam which started at the same initial temperature and
decreased in temperature to 105 degrees. From this data we discovered that these insulators
had a low heat capacity, held heat very well. Ironically we realized the two insulating materials
that actually are used to insulate houses worked the best.

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