Ice Kacang Cooler Box

Ice Kacang Cooler Box

Task:

To create an ice cooler box out of materials best able to prevent heat transfer in order to keep ice kacang from melting.

3 ways through which heat transfers:

• Conduction

The transfer of heat from particle to particle by diffusion and collisions of the particles within a body due to a temperature gradient

• Convection

The transfer of heat from one place to another by the movement of fluids e.g. air

• Radiation

A process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through vacuum

Materials used:

-Aluminium foil

-Plastic container

Aluminium foil:

-Wrapped around the outside of the plastic container to prevent heat transfer from outside of box to the inside

-The surfaces of aluminium foil are shiny and reflective, therefore aluminium is a poor emitter of radiation and does not absorb heat by radiation easily, instead reflecting the infra red radiation

-Thus, gaining of thermal heat energy from the surroundings of the box through radiation is greatly reduced

Plastic container:

-Forms main body of the cooler box and prevents heat transfer from surroundings to the object within

-Plastic is a poor conductor of heat, an insulator, as it is not a metal with free flowing electrons that are the main reason why metals are the best conductors of heat

-These delocalised electrons when heated are able to move between the ions down the temperature gradient, colliding and transferring the thermal heat energy to neighbouring ions efficiently

-On the other hand, in plastic, heat is conducted slowly from atom to atom, resulting in a longer time needed for heat from the outside of the box to travel to the inside of the box