Name: Michael

SUBMISSION DATE: 15/03/2013 Group Members

Role Equipment Manager Method Manager Results Manager Reserve

Student Name Chase Michael Kahn

PRACTICAL REPORT: Pizza Box Solar Oven AIM: The purpose of this experiment is to see if the angle of the box affects the temperature of the water inside. Another purpose behind this experiment is to understand the concept of radiation. HYPOTHESIS: If the angle of the boxs lid (foil) increases, then the temperature (Co) will decrease. This is because once the foil is in the right position; the water will be at the maximum temperature. Anything else will not reach the same amount as the original position, as any radiation from the sun will be reflected by the foil. VARIABLES Independent (What is changed mention the units), Dependent (What is measured mention the units) Controlled Variables (What is kept the same throughout the experiment)

Angle of pizza box lid (aluminium foil side) (Degrees) Temperature within beaker (Co)

Uncontrolled Variables (What cannot be controlled in the experiment)

Type of box Color of box Type of foil Type of plastic wrap Starting temperature of water Position of water Position of sun Time of day Shadows Amount of radiation

LIST OF EQUIPMENT: - Pizza box-1 - Aluminum foil-1 (22.5 cm by 30 cm) - Plastic wrap- 1 (30 cm by 30 cm) - Black cardboard paper-1 (22.5 cm by 30 cm) - Wooden stick-1 (25 cm) - Tape-1 roll - Protractor-1 - Glue Stick-1 - Scissors-1 - Permanent marker-1 - Thermometer- 1 - Stopwatch- 1

METHOD: (write in the past tense, use numbered steps, no I or we sentences) 1. Collect equipment 2. Make standard pizza box. (Howcast) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwliZJiHe8) 3. Fill beaker with 30ml of water in room temperature and place thermometer inside 4. Place inside pizza box oven 5. Adjust angle of box to 90o 6. Start stopwatch 7. After 8 minutes, record temperature 8. Compose experiment three times to ensure temperature is unbiased 9. Repeat steps 5-7, two more times, adding 45o to angle of box lid in every test RESULTS: (put your measurements in a table) (Put a title on all columns, show correct units, and show some mathematical transformation, eg. average, percentage etc)
Angle of lid (degrees) Trial 1 (temperature Celsius) Trial 2 (temperature Celsius) Trial 3 (temperature Celsius) Average 90o 32 135o 31 180o 32
Should look like this

32

36

40

31.5

33.5

39

31.83

33.5

37

Draw a graph of your results using excel.

(Hint: independent variable is on the horizontal X axis, dependent on vertical Y axis, show scale for both axes.)

How Does the Angle of the Lid affect the Temperature of the Water?

DISCUSSION: (Paragraph 1: What is the relationship/ trend between the variables, as shown by the graph?) With some observation of the graph, it was found that when the angle of the pizza box increased, the temperature increased, opposing the claim that the hypothesis made. The graph showed a consistent increase, rising from an average of 31.83oC at 90o to an average of 37oC at 180o. (Paragraph 2: Explain this relationship using scientific reasoning.) The solar oven was a Part of the reason that the temperature may have rose is because the sun got brighter and hotter as the temperatures were measured, the measuring stage taking place over the course of two days. During this time the oven may have been exposed to different While the angle of the lid was at 180o, the radiation would probably have shone directly on the beaker; something that may have created a significant difference in the heat of the water. (Paragraph 3: Was the outcome different from what was expected? Explain whether your results support/contradict the hypothesis.) The results were completely opposite from the hypothesis. As opposed to having temperature falling, the temperature of the water rose as the angle increased. (Paragraph 4: Were there any difficulties/problems/errors in the method? Could these could be improved/changed to get better results?) One difficulty that was found in the experiment was that the temperature of the water in the beaker needed to be measured every eight minutes. There were two reasons why this was difficult. One reason was that there was little time measuring and lots of time waiting for the eight minutes to pass, creating lots of wasted time. Another more important reason, however, was that the oven was harder to manage for the long period of time. The time measuring should have been a little shorter. Another problem also included (Paragraph 5: Are your results reliable - did you do repeat trials?) (Paragraph 6: Are your results valid - did you have controlled variables?) The results were unreliable because even though the trials were repeated, the same beaker was used; making the average temperature higher than it should have been. A set temperature for the water was not used in the experiment, so the temperature increase within one trial could not have been accurately recorded. There were many different controlled variables that we used and did not use. The materials that were used (type of box, color of box, type of foil, type of plastic wrap, color of paper inside box) mostly stayed the same. The starting temperature of the water, the placement of the beaker, and the placement of the oven did not stay the same, however. (Paragraph 7: Write any equations learned from this experiment to summarise the experiment) The averages of each trial were found out by: 1. Adding the numbers of a certain angle 90o:
o

32+32+31.5= 95.5

135 : 31+36+33.5= 100.5 180o: 32+40+39= 111 2. Dividing by three

90o:

95.5/3= 31.83

135o: 100.5/3= 33.5 180o: 111/3= 37 (Paragraph 8: What else could be tested for future experiments further enquiry?) An interesting topic may include the color of the paper inside the oven; seeing if different colors will affect the temperature. CONCLUSION: The experimental results contradict the stated hypothesis. The experiment showed that when the angle of the lid of the oven increased, the temperature of the water inside rose. This is because, as the experiment moved on, the suns radiation had more and more of an effect on the heat of the water. This does not relate to the hypothesis because the test was not fair; the method including major problems for determining accuracy.