Download flammability of materials

FLAMMABILITY OF
MATERIALS
Isabella Pahrman
Earth Science Period 8 – Mrs. McNees
Problem
∞Out of cotton, wool, and flame retardant
fabric, which material burns the slowest?
Research
∞Convection: transfer of thermal energy by the movement
of heated material from one place to another
∞Energy Transfer: transfer of energy from one place to
another, such as thermal energy, kinetic energy, etc.
∞Example: a lit match transfers energy when applied to
something else
*CITATION: Borrero, Francisco; etal. Glencoe Earth Science.
New York: McGraw Hill. 2013. Page 288. Print.
Procedure: Materials
∞Stopwatch
∞Foot-Long Strip of Wool, Cotton, & Flame
Retardant Material
∞Lighter
∞Flat Surface
Hypothesis
∞If I burn cotton, wool, and flame
retardant fabric, then wool will take the
longest to burn because it is the densest.
Procedure: Steps
1. Take strip of cotton and hold it up with tongs.
2. Light bottom of material on fire and time how long it takes to
completely burn.
3. Record results and observations.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 with wool and flame retardant fabric.
5. Graph results.
Variables
∞Constants: size of material, flame
∞Controlled Variables: cotton
∞Independent Variable: materials used
∞Dependent Variable: time it burns
Data
Time to Burn Completely
Minutes
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Cotton
Flame Retardant
Fabric
Material
Wool
Observations
∞The cotton, the control for this experiment,
burned only for about 0.5 minutes.
∞The flame retardant material, ironically, burned
the fastest. Technically, it looked like it was
melting rather than burning, though. It had been
completely burned after only 0.23 minutes.
∞The wool took a lot longer, at 1.5 minutes to burn.
It also smoked a lot.
Conclusion
∞The problem was solved when I found out
that wool was the material that burned
the slowest.
∞My hypothesis was supported because
the wool, being the densest, took the
longest time to burn completely.