Conductivity Lab

Purpose: To test the heat conductivity of different metals

Materials:
- four 8 cm conduction bars
- felt pen
- ruler
- candle
- matches
- hot plate
- stopwatch
- graph paper

Data:
Distance (cm)
Aluminum (sec)
Zinc (sec)
Copper (sec)
Carbon (sec)
Lead (sec)
Tin (sec)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
17
7
6
19
6
3
4
29
19
10
32
8
11
6
38
28
22
46
14
19
8
47
44
27
1 min
41
20

Analyze:

1. I could tell because they changed color.
2a. No
2b. tin, lead, copper, zinc, aluminum, carbon.

Conclude and Apply

1. The molecules heated up and expanded causing the heat to pass through and melt the wax.
2. Carbon because it take longer to heat up fully.

Conclusion

I assumed aluminum would heat up faster because it was thinner than the other metals. I was positive that carbon would take longer because it is quite thick. I learned that Tin heats the fastest, probably because it is also thin, but also used to contain food you can heat up inside the container.