DETERMINING WHICH MATERIALS BURN AND EXTINGUISH THE BEST Dylan. R Lamphier Cary Academy ABSTRACT The purpose of the experiment was to find out which materials burn and extinguish the best. It was hypothesized that wood would burn and extinguish the best because it was used all the time for fires. To set up the experiment an oil lamp was placed outside. Also the tester of the experiment was wearing impact goggles. Once that was done the material s temperature was taken and was later graphed. After that the materials were burnt for five minutes and their temperature was taken and also graphed. The time it took for the materials to go back to their original temperature was measured in seconds using a stopwatch. The results of the experiments showed that wood was the best burner but did not extinguish the best, paper did however there was hardly any paper to point the thermometer at. With this in mind metal would have the fastest cool down time. INTRODUCTION the best. The purpose of the experiment is to find out which materials burn and extinguish The materials that were burnt in this experiment were wood, plastic dry ice, iron metal, and paper. It was observed that the wood weighed 127 grams, one iron nail weighed 1gram. The holes in the wood are 6 mm wide. The nail was 36 mm long and 1 mm wide. The nail is a dull dark grey. The wood was 317 mm long. The plastic is about 250 mm wide and 185 mm long. The dry ice is -25 degrees Celsius. The Dry ice in a serious white and steams when it is first moved. The flame from the alcohol lamp is there is a blue flame at the bottom of the fire. That flame is 50 mm tall. The whole flame is 150 mm tall. The flame is a red orange. It is more of an orange then a red. The flame has a movement in the flame that is the
illusion of two flames going on at the same time. The wick is 20 degrees (C) after it has been used it is a pale white at the bottom and a dark black at the top of the wick. The flame is 70 degrees (C). The flame is 180 degrees (F). The candle smells like burning alcohol. The flame extinguishes after you put a cap on the flame. Once that has happened the cap smells terrible. To make the lighter make fire you have to roll the spiked wheel on the top forward and pull the trigger. In the research it was found out that there are five ways to extinguish a fire. One can dump water on the fire. Cover the flame with a fire blanket or something to block out the Oxygen, blast the flame with a fire extinguisher, cover it with dirt or sand, and pour baking soda on the flame. Research showed that water can burn; salt water can burn because saltwater is hit with a radio frequency beam it can burn. There are many ways to start a fire but three common ways are to obviously light a match, the friction based way which is to rub two sticks together to create a flame. Also one can use the hand drill technique which is to put a piece of wood on the ground and to rub a stick into the piece of wood on the ground. The way things burn is by the reactants having an amount of energy stored in their chemical bonds. This energy can be released if it reacts with water. In a simpler way to say it two types of atoms, hydrogen and oxygen move towards each other and create energy. This forms fire. Alcohol lamps were researched and this is what was found out. An alcohol lamp consists of a small jar, often glass, with a wick which goes through a lid in the jar. The glass jar is filled with alcohol which is flammable. A wick dipped in the alcohol draws alcohol up through the lid, where it burns, like a candle. It can be used for heating at low temperatures. It was hypothesized that the wood would be the best material to burn because it is more commonly burned than the other materials. It was also hypothesized that wood would be the best material to extinguish because wood is more commonly extinguished than the other materials.
MATERIALS & METHOD Iron Wood Plastic Dry ice Paper Infrared non-contact thermometer. A burner Tongs Lighter Stopwatch Goggles Alcohol lamp To set up the experiment an alcohol lamp was placed outside. The tester of the experiment was wearing impact goggles. Then the oil lamp was lit using a lighter. After that the original temperature of the materials were recorded and graphed. Then one of the materials dry ice, plastic, paper, wood, and iron was burnt for five minutes (not at the same time). The temperature was immediately checked with the Infrared noncontact thermometer and the data was recorded in (C) and graphed. After that happened, the time it took for the temperature to go back to the original state was recorded with a stopwatch in seconds and later put in a graph. The control was the wood. The independent variable was the plastic, dry ice, paper, and iron metal. And the dependent variable was how long it takes to go back to the original temperature, how hot the material was after it was burnt, and what the original temperature was. To stay impact goggles were needed. When moving the dry ice gloves were required. Also when the flame is burning the lighter cannot be anywhere near it because it is highly flammable and could explode. Original
Tempature (c) Tempature (c) RESULTS & DISCUSSION 30 20 10 0-10 wood iron metal plastic paper dry ice -20-30 Type of material Figure 1 original temperature of the materials 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 wood iron metal plastic paper dry ice Type of material Figure 2 burned temperature of the material
Rreturn to origional temp (s) 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 wood iron metal plastic paper dry ice Type of material Figure 3 the time it takes for the materials to go back to original temp Figure 4 Wood after being burnt
Figure 5 A picture of an iron nail after being burnt Figure 6 A picture of burnt plastic
Figure 7 paper burnt The graph named, figure one shows a graph of the original temperature of the materials before they were burnt. The dry ice is below the zero in the graph because the dry ice was negative twenty-five degrees Celsius. In figure 2 the graph shows the burnt temperature of the materials. In figure 3 it shows how long it took for the materials to go back to their original temperature. The reason the time for the paper is shorter than all the other materials is because there was almost nothing to measurer as shown in figure seven. It appears that in all the graphs wood was burnt very easily and did not extinguish very well. Iron extinguishes the best. During the experiment it was observed that the burning wood smelled nice and turned black in particular areas where it had been burnt. The iron nail never caught on fire and started to change color very quickly. The plastic caught on fire many times and had to be blown out to continue the experiment. The paper caught fire quickly and browned when being burnt. The dry ice made a terrible
noise when they were picked up with the tongs. Also the dry ice never caught fire, only melted. CONCLUSIONS The hypothesis was confirmed in the category of burning but did not extinguish well at all. It was inferred that the experiment turned out the way it did because wood was burnt more often and used more often as a burning material. The experiment could be improved by having more trials and burning more materials. A future experimental possibility could be to test which way to put out a fire works the best. It was interesting to find out during the experiment that an oil lamp can get so hot that the flame is invisible. REFRENCES Dr.Mae-wan ho. Can water burn? i-sis.org. Institute of science in technology. 1999. Web. 1/9/2012 Floon. Ways to put out a fire. wiki.answers.com. Answers.com. 2012. Web. 1/9/2012. JEK. How does an Alcohol lamp Work. Answers.com. Answers Corporation, 2012, Web. 1-20-12. Polymers that save lives. Why and how do things burn. pslc.ws. Polymer science learning center. University of southern Mississippi.2002. web 1/9/2012