1. Insulating Cubes 9-2 project 2

2. Purpose The purpose of my experiment is to determine which insulating material will keep an ice cube frozen the longest.

3. Hypothesis My hypothesis is that the styrofoam insulator will keep the ice cube frozen the longest. I formed this hypothesis because I know that styrofoam is used in coolers, so it should keep an ice cube frozen.

4. Materials Five empty 2L milk cartons Five ice cubes of 4tbsp. Of water Insulating materials (styrofoam, paper towel, Easter grass, cloth & newspaper) Timer or clock Small tupperwear containers Ruler, scissors, pencil & paper

5. Method In advance: Freeze a tray of ice cubes, each 4tbsp. Of water. Rinse and dry five two-litre milk cartons. Cut the tops off of the milk cartons where the bending of the spout stops. Gather all materials needed to conduct the experiment.

6. Conducting the experiment: 1.Place all milk cartons on a flat surface. 2.Fill the milk cartons half ways with a different insulator in each. 3.Lay a small container flat on the insulating material in all the milk cartons. 4.Put an ice cube in each small container. These containers are used to collect melted water.

7. 5.Place more insulator around each container with a layer covering the container. 6.Record the time. 7.Every thirty minutes check to see if the ice cubes are melted. Once the ice cubes become small, start checking the cubes every five minutes. 8.Record the time when an ice cube has completely melted.

8. Manipulated Variable The manipulated variable of my experiment is the different types of insulators which are styrofoam, paper towel, Easter grass, cloth and newspaper.

9. Controlled Variables The controlled variables of my experiment are the amount of water used to make the cubes, the same size milk cartons & containers, and the amount of time between checking the cubes, which was thirty minutes.

10. Responding variable The responding variable of my experiment is the time taken for the ice cubes to melt.

11. Results Trial 1Trial 2Trial 3Average Styrofoam105mins.115mins.100mins.107mins. Paper Towel 135mins.120mins.130mins.128mins. Easter Grass 90mins.100mins.95mins. Cloth140mins.125mins.135mins.133mins. Newspaper145mins.140mins.150mins.145mins.

12. Analysis

13. Conclusion My hypothesis was that the styrofoam insulator would keep an ice cube frozen the longest because it is used in coolers. My results proved that my hypothesis was incorrect. Newspaper kept an ice cube frozen the longest followed by cloth, paper towel, styrofoam and Easter grass, which allowed the ice cube to melt the fastest.

14. Sources of error Overall, the experiments I did went well. Some sources that might have caused slight errors in my experiment are the different times of day; the temperature could have been different during each experiment I did. Also, the ice cubes could have been slightly different in size. This could have affected my experiment by having some cubes melt faster than others.

15. Ways to improve A few ways I could have improved my experiment would be making sure each ice cube was exactly the same size, to use more insulator, and to check the cubes in smaller time periods. Another would be to have done the experiments at the exact same time of day; therefore the results would have been more accurate.

16. Pictures