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Can aerogel be utilized as a insulator material this year? One of my friends used it last year and I'm not completely sure if it is allowed.

Yes.

Hi Joey,

Thanks for the previous response on reflective barriers. Do you know how much the aerogel costs? On the one hand I've heard it's prohibitively expensive (for a SciOly event), on the other hand it seems a lot of people are using it. I'm unsure about whether to buy it or stick with the EPS. Thanks in advance for your help!

Signing out~

JavaScriptCoder wrote:Hi Joey,

Thanks for the previous response on reflective barriers. Do you know how much the aerogel costs? On the one hand I've heard it's prohibitively expensive (for a SciOly event), on the other hand it seems a lot of people are using it. I'm unsure about whether to buy it or stick with the EPS. Thanks in advance for your help!

Signing out~

Here is a good link; its where I got mine from. Its not cheap, but if you use it sparingly, it shouldn't be too much of a price issue. Also, one problem with it is that its granular so you have to figure out how to make an insulating sleeve to put your beaker in.

CookiePie1 wrote:

JavaScriptCoder wrote:Hi Joey,

Thanks for the previous response on reflective barriers. Do you know how much the aerogel costs? On the one hand I've heard it's prohibitively expensive (for a SciOly event), on the other hand it seems a lot of people are using it. I'm unsure about whether to buy it or stick with the EPS. Thanks in advance for your help!

Signing out~

Here is a good link; its where I got mine from. Its not cheap, but if you use it sparingly, it shouldn't be too much of a price issue. Also, one problem with it is that its granular so you have to figure out how to make an insulating sleeve to put your beaker in.

Thanks! Do you know about the best method to create an equation to estimate heat loss with relatively few tests? Last year we used Newton's Law of Cooling, that worked out pretty badly (I guess since the system was not quite ideal and radiation was not a large source of heat loss). Even worse, this year I think we'll have very few tests since the Chem Lab is going under renovation and it'll be out of action until spring.

JavaScriptCoder

JavaScriptCoder wrote:

CookiePie1 wrote:

JavaScriptCoder wrote:Hi Joey,

Thanks for the previous response on reflective barriers. Do you know how much the aerogel costs? On the one hand I've heard it's prohibitively expensive (for a SciOly event), on the other hand it seems a lot of people are using it. I'm unsure about whether to buy it or stick with the EPS. Thanks in advance for your help!

Signing out~

Here is a good link; its where I got mine from. Its not cheap, but if you use it sparingly, it shouldn't be too much of a price issue. Also, one problem with it is that its granular so you have to figure out how to make an insulating sleeve to put your beaker in.

Thanks! Do you know about the best method to create an equation to estimate heat loss with relatively few tests? Last year we used Newton's Law of Cooling, that worked out pretty badly (I guess since the system was not quite ideal and radiation was not a large source of heat loss). Even worse, this year I think we'll have very few tests since the Chem Lab is going under renovation and it'll be out of action until spring.

JavaScriptCoder

Test more. You can do it at home very easily if you have a microwave oven (if not, then you'll have to boil it or something). But test, test, and test.

Ok so I think I need a better way to test my device. I microwave 95 mL of water. I take it out at boiling. I stick my digital thermometer in and I wait until the water reaches 75C. I pour the water in, seal my device, and plug the hole. I put the thermometer back in and it looses 10 degrees C in about 30 seconds.

I'm not sure if its my device or the way I pour the water in, but its unsettling.

Background Info - The beaker is immediately surrounded by foil on all sides, including the lid which presses against the lip of the beaker. After that its all spray foam insulation. On the outside is a thin layer of cardboard wrapped in duct tape.

Some results...

Start: 75 C
End: 56.8 C

Start: 74 C
End: 52.6 C

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first year on the event.

-CPScienceDude

CPScienceDude wrote:Ok so I think I need a better way to test my device. I microwave 95 mL of water. I take it out at boiling. I stick my digital thermometer in and I wait until the water reaches 75C. I pour the water in, seal my device, and plug the hole. I put the thermometer back in and it looses 10 degrees C in about 30 seconds.

I'm not sure if its my device or the way I pour the water in, but its unsettling.

Background Info - The beaker is immediately surrounded by foil on all sides, including the lid which presses against the lip of the beaker. After that its all spray foam insulation. On the outside is a thin layer of cardboard wrapped in duct tape.

Some results...

Start: 75 C
End: 56.8 C

Start: 74 C
End: 52.6 C

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first year on the event.

-CPScienceDude

The water always loses temperature when you pour it unfortunately. I would recommend pouring the water and then sticking your thermometer in. I'm not sure about this year, but last year, you were allowed to bring a thermometer to the competition and record the temperature after the water was poured. If that's still allowed, I would definitely recommend doing that.

By the way, are you pouring and then putting the beaker in your device, or are you keeping the beaker in your device and then pouring the water in?

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote:

CPScienceDude wrote:Ok so I think I need a better way to test my device. I microwave 95 mL of water. I take it out at boiling. I stick my digital thermometer in and I wait until the water reaches 75C. I pour the water in, seal my device, and plug the hole. I put the thermometer back in and it looses 10 degrees C in about 30 seconds.

I'm not sure if its my device or the way I pour the water in, but its unsettling.

Background Info - The beaker is immediately surrounded by foil on all sides, including the lid which presses against the lip of the beaker. After that its all spray foam insulation. On the outside is a thin layer of cardboard wrapped in duct tape.

Some results...

Start: 75 C
End: 56.8 C

Start: 74 C
End: 52.6 C

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first year on the event.

-CPScienceDude

The water always loses temperature when you pour it unfortunately. I would recommend pouring the water and then sticking your thermometer in. I'm not sure about this year, but last year, you were allowed to bring a thermometer to the competition and record the temperature after the water was poured. If that's still allowed, I would definitely recommend doing that.

By the way, are you pouring and then putting the beaker in your device, or are you keeping the beaker in your device and then pouring the water in?

I keep the beaker in my device the pour the water into the beaker directly. The rules don't explicitly say you should bring a thermometer, rather just saying that each team can bring tools and supplies.

CPScienceDude wrote:

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote:

CPScienceDude wrote:Ok so I think I need a better way to test my device. I microwave 95 mL of water. I take it out at boiling. I stick my digital thermometer in and I wait until the water reaches 75C. I pour the water in, seal my device, and plug the hole. I put the thermometer back in and it looses 10 degrees C in about 30 seconds.

I'm not sure if its my device or the way I pour the water in, but its unsettling.

Background Info - The beaker is immediately surrounded by foil on all sides, including the lid which presses against the lip of the beaker. After that its all spray foam insulation. On the outside is a thin layer of cardboard wrapped in duct tape.

Some results...

Start: 75 C
End: 56.8 C

Start: 74 C
End: 52.6 C

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first year on the event.

-CPScienceDude

The water always loses temperature when you pour it unfortunately. I would recommend pouring the water and then sticking your thermometer in. I'm not sure about this year, but last year, you were allowed to bring a thermometer to the competition and record the temperature after the water was poured. If that's still allowed, I would definitely recommend doing that.

By the way, are you pouring and then putting the beaker in your device, or are you keeping the beaker in your device and then pouring the water in?

I keep the beaker in my device the pour the water into the beaker directly. The rules don't explicitly say you should bring a thermometer, rather just saying that each team can bring tools and supplies.

See rule 4.e. regarding the thermometer. We always lost a large amount of heat in te process of measuring and pouring into the beaker. However, if you have this problem, other teams will also have this problem. Therefore I wouldn't worry about it too much.