Rahul Parikh

Insulator Lab Report

Problem: Which materials work best to insulate a plastic water bottle?
Hypothesis: If regular insulated water bottles have a lot of insulation, than more insulation will
help insulate the water bottle.
Observations: The materials we used were mostly non-environmental, since most of our
materials were plastic. Our materials were also relatively soft. The foam packing peanuts were
the most of our insulation, and the most helpful. We also used a large quantity of materials, and
the end result was a water bottle that looked like a soccer ball, and was sphere-like.
As we experimented, everything went well, with no changes in the water bottle
physically or chemically. At the end, the water bottle looked as if we never used it before. The
water bottle had a duct tape layering on the top that added to the decoration of the water bottle,
and did not discolor or change during experimentation.
Materials List:
1) 1 roll of Bubble wrap- we used it because it would provide excellent insulation, since it
was made out of plastic
2) 1 package of Plastic wrap- the plastic is a great insulator, and the more plastic, the less
energy that will escape the water bottle, keeping the temperature relatively stable.
3) 2 rolls of Duct tape- We used it for decoration
4) bag of Foam packing peanuts- we used it because Styrofoam also is a great insulator,
and does a good job of keeping energy trapped.
5) 1 Stopwatch- to use in the experiment in keeping time
6) 2 Water bottles- needed to perform the experiment and experiment the control
7) Microsoft Excel or other graphing computer program- to record data and create graphs
8) Microsoft Word or other word processing program- to write lab report
9) 1 Celsius Thermometer- to be used in recording temperature in the experiment
10) 2 water bottle bottles filled with hot water- to be put in water bottle for the experiment
11) 1 pair of Scissors- to cut when building and to cut holes in lids for experimenting
Procedure:
1) Take one water bottle and put foam packing peanuts on the duct tape
2) Wrap the entire water bottle in this layer, except for the lid area
3) Take plastic wrap, cut it to fit for the water bottle, and wrap around the entire layer of duct
tape and foam peanuts
4) Now, take bubble wrap, and wrap around the entire water bottle.
5) Repeat the last three steps ten times for maximum results. The end result should be a
water bottle shaped like a soccer ball.
6) At the end, wrap the gigantic water bottle with duct tape of your choosing for decoration,
and to hold the top layer together
7) Take scissors and cut holes in the lids of the two water bottles, small enough that a
thermometer will fit, but not huge so that energy can escape.
8) Let the temperature stabilize, and then start your timer

Rahul Parikh
9) At 30 second intervals, check the temperature and record on your Microsoft Word data
report
10) After 600 seconds, take control water bottle, cut the hole in the lid, and pour hot water into
it.
11) Repeat last 3 steps, recording data into the Word document.
12) After the experiment is finished, create data any way you would like, and graph the data
with your Spreadsheet program.
13) Clean up, and draw conclusions about the experiment.

Rahul Parikh
Insulator Data

Control Data

Temperature
(Celsius) (Celsius)
Temperature

Time in
Seconds
0

80

30

80

60

80

90

80

150
180
210
240
270
300
330
360
390
420
450
480
510
540
570
600
Time in seconds

80
79
79
79
79
78
79
78
78
78
77
77
77
77
77
77

77

30

75

60

74

90

74

150
180
210
240
270
300
330
360
390
420
450
480
510
540

71
70
70
69
69
69
68
65
64
63
62
61
60
59

Rahul Parikh
570
600

59
58

Control Data
90
80
70
60
50

Temprature (Celsius) 40
30
20
10
0

Time (Seconds)

Rahul Parikh

Insulator Data

Temprature (Celsius)

80.5
80
79.5
79
78.5
78
77.5
77
76.5
76
75.5

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Time (Seconds)

Conclusion: We tested which materials would work best to insulate a plastic water bottle. We
hypothesized that the more insulation, the better the water bottle would insulate. We tested
mainly with foam packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and plastic wrap, and dramatically wrapped all

Rahul Parikh
the materials around the bottle. Our data proved our hypothesis, as our water bottle worked way
better than the control water bottle, which was just a regular water bottle. Our independent
variable was the materials around water bottle, and the dependent variable was the change in
temperature of the water. Some of our constants was the temperature of the water, and where we
tested our experiment. Our control results varied dramatically to our insulated one, as it changed
29 degrees Celsius, versus the insulated one only changed four degrees.
I think that our materials played a big role in our results, with plastic being a poor
conductor along with Styrofoam packing peanuts, it really trapped the energy well. Our
experiment went well, with sources of error at a minimum. Our insulator worked to be one of the
best out of 6 experiments, all because of our materials.