Beyond Unit 6 Day 3 Science

[Robbi]

UGH! I've spent 15 minutes searching the boards for a post about Beyond Unit 6 Day 3 science where you put a piece of ice in a thick mitten and a light cloth. But I can't find any and I'm sure I saw one recently. Can someone help me? Which ice is suppose to melt faster???

Thanks!

[Homeschooln2qts]

The conclusion that I drew when we did this a couple of months ago was that the ice cube in the dish cloth would melt faster than the one in the mitten/wool skarf --the reason being that thicker clothing insulates better than thinner clothing keeping the core temperature more constant. The temperature of the ice isn't changed as quickly in the mitten as it is in the dish towel because it's insulated better and the ice in the dish towel is more vulnerable to the outside temperature so it melts quicker. Does that make sense? Hope that was right!

**edited to say- and btw, the ice cube in the thin dish towel did end up being the one that melted the quickest for us.

[Robbi]

Thanks for your reply! That's the result we got too! After 15 minutes there was no change in either ice . . but 2 hours later the light cloth ice had completely melted and there was still pretty large chunks in the mitten one!

Thanks!

[HappyMama]

This was the same conclusion we got too!

[MelInKansas]

This is what I get for not following the directions properly. When we did that experiment I didn't use exactly a mitten and a thin dish cloth, because I didn't feel like the mittens we had and the dishcloths that I own were different enough in thickness or insulative property. So I used a stocking cap and a thin pair of shorts. It was pretty warm in the house, but after 2 hours the one in the stocking cap had melted more (which is what my children theorized). I decided that must have been because the stocking cap was already warm and stayed warm, whereas the shorts were not warm and therefore didn't add any heat to the ice. But I was so confused because I had thought it would turn out like you ladies said, that the one in the thin cloth would melt faster because it didn't have any insulation from the surrounding air. Shows you how much I know (and that experiments can always go wrong).

Just an anecdote, we did another experiment where you were supposed to put certain things in water and some would float and some would sink. Of course what the experiment said, didn't happen at all and I couldn't really figure out why. The celery sank, and one of the other veggies that was supposed to float was neutrally buoyant in the middle of the tub of water. Crazy. I was wondering if it was affected by other things in the water.

[KristinBeth]

Interesting post. I guess I'll have to buy a mitten before next year. I live in Arizona -- we don't have wool here.

[Robbi]

LOL, Kristin!!! When you get to Beyond give us a shout-out! I bet I have a spare mitten that doesn't have a mate! I'd be happy to send it your way! (Wanna have some of our cold weather too??) Our first freeze was last night! So not ready for cold weather!