TITLE: THERMAL

OBSERVATION: it is observed that Caribbean wood house make cooler than concrete houses
HYPOTHESIS: wood has a lower thermal conductivity compared to concrete
AIM: To determine if wood possesses a lower thermal conductivity compared to concrete
APPARATUS: wood rod and concrete rod both 0.0047625m in diameter and 0.1016m in length,
cylindrical Styrofoam piece (insulation), hot plate, thermometers (digital and mercury), 250ml beaker,
retort stand, magnetic stir bar and water

DIAGRAM
1. Pourapproximately175mLofwaterintoa250mLbeaker.Placethebeakerontoahotplateandheat the
watertodesiredtemperature (70 degrees Celsius).Recordthewatertemperature.
2. DrillorpierceasmallholeintooneoftheStyrofoamcylinders.Theholeshouldbesized sothatthewooden
rodfitssnuglywithintheStyrofoaminsulation.
3. InsertthewoodenrodintothecenteroftheStyrofoamcylinder.Approximately3mmof woodshouldbe
exposedbeneaththeStyrofoamcylinder.Usethedigitalthermometer torecordthetemperatureatthetopof
themetalrod.Repeatthisprocessforeachrodthatyouhave.
4. Withtherodinserted,carefullyplacetheStyrofoamcylinderintotheboilingwaterbath sothat6mmofthe
cylinderissubmergedbeneaththewaterline.Clampthecylinderin placeusingoneoftheclampsandthe
stand
5. Placethedigitalthermometerontothetopofthemetalrod.Taketemperaturereadings atregulartime
intervals for 2 minutes
6. Thetemperatureatthewaterand thefreeendofthemetalrodismeasuredwithdigitalthermometers
accuratetoonedecimal placeandisnoted in the table provided
7. Todetermineq,usearodofknownlengthandsetitintothesamebathatthe sametemperaturefor2minutes,
usedthe theoreticalkvalue for both material given which is(0.8(W/mK)) and 0.12(W/mK)),the
temperaturerecordedafter2minutes,areawithknowndiameterandlength.

DIAGRAM
DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW APPARATUS WILL BE SET UP TO DETERMINE IF WOOD
POSSESSES A LOWER THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPARED TO CONCRETE

THEORY

Thermal conductivity (K) is define as the rate at which heat passes through a specified material,

expressed as the amount of heat that flows per unit time through a unit area with a
temperature gradient of one degree per unit distance

Derived into

Where:
qistheheattransferrateinWatts(W),
kisthethermal conductivityinW/(mK),
Aisthecrosssectionalareaoftherod (*D2/4m2)
xisthelengthoftherodinmeter(m)
T1-T2isthe temperatureoftherodattwoendpoint(K).

EXPECTED RESULTS

Temperature at
immersed end (T1)/K
T1 T2
T3
Tave
Concrete rod

Wooden rod

Cross sectionalareaoftherods ( A ) =
Length oftherodsinmeter(x)=

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

Temperature at free end

T2/K
T1
T2
T3

Heat transfer rate Q/

Watts

PRECAUTION
Therodsaresubjectedtothe70Cbathforexactly2.00minutesinallofthe experimentsinordertoensurethat
exactlythesameamountofheatenergyistransferredto therodsineachoftheexperiments

SOURCES OF ERROR