Materials Testing
Now, we are testing the materials that we may use when building our cold frame and reflector. But to do this, we had to design our own procedure and lab to to test the materials we would use, as well as choose which materials we would want to test. The materials we decided to test had quite a large range. From paints to plexiglass to rigid foam, we had a lot of testing to do. Our procedure to test the materials was:
1. Place tested material on corrugated cardboard (to insulate some heat that may have been lost to the counter)
2. Place one square foot of tested material twelve centimeters below a sixty-watt incandescent light bulb
3. Take initial temperature of tested material
4. Turn on the light bulb
5. Record the temperature every five minutes for a twenty minute period
6. Turn off the light bulb
7. Take the temperature every five minutes for another twenty minute period
8. Find total temperature gain and loss for each material
9. Compare materials and analyze data
After completing the testing, we graphed the conductivity of each material, as well as found the net gain of each material. But, due to experimental error in the lab, our results were inconclusive.
1. Place tested material on corrugated cardboard (to insulate some heat that may have been lost to the counter)
2. Place one square foot of tested material twelve centimeters below a sixty-watt incandescent light bulb
3. Take initial temperature of tested material
4. Turn on the light bulb
5. Record the temperature every five minutes for a twenty minute period
6. Turn off the light bulb
7. Take the temperature every five minutes for another twenty minute period
8. Find total temperature gain and loss for each material
9. Compare materials and analyze data
After completing the testing, we graphed the conductivity of each material, as well as found the net gain of each material. But, due to experimental error in the lab, our results were inconclusive.