What is the best way to keep an ice cube from melting?
Gilchrist Widjaja
Abstract: In this experiment, five different materials are used in order to keep ice from melting.
These materials were aluminium foil, cling wrap, printer paper, baking paper and cardboard. This
experiment is done by placing ice in four different materials. These four materials are going to be: a
paper bag, aluminium foil, a plastic container and a Styrofoam box. The ice will then be left inside
each of these areas for ninety minutes. The materials performed in the following order from best to
worst: Styrofoam, plastic, paper and aluminium foil. Styrofoam kept the ice in roughly the same size
it was when put in, plastic was able to keep it at about half the size with paper following shortly
after. The aluminium foil allowed the ice to melt completely. From the following results, it can be
concluded that Styrofoam is an excellent insulator of cold with plastic and paper trailing behind. It
can also be concluded that aluminium foil is a very low quality insulator of cold, as it allowed the ice
to melt completely.
Introduction: A common everyday problem that most people encounter is that the ice that they are
using to cool something down melts too early. This can result in unsightly food, or more importantly,
spoiled food. Because of this, I have attempted to try to find the best insulator to keep ice from
melting.
Aim: The aim of the experiment is to find out what insulator is best at keeping ice from melting. The
insulators used will be: a cardboard box, a plastic bag, aluminium foil and a Styrofoam box.
Hypothesis: I believe that, in order from best to worst, the materials will work in the following:
Styrofoam, plastic, cardboard, aluminium.
Method:
1- Set up the materials so that ice can be placed inside of each material
2- Once ready, place 5-10 ice cubes inside each of the materials
3- Seal off the materials and place them away from direct sunlight and shade.
4- Let it sit for 90 minutes
5- Observe once every ten minutes
6- After 90 minutes, compile results
Discussion: The results did not fully confirm my original hypothesis. The results proved that
Styrofoam would be the best insulator and aluminium would be the worst. However, cardboard and
plastic seemed to have done differently than what I expected.
I expected Styrofoam to work the best due to Styrofoam being a type of expanded polystyrene, also
known as EPS. EPS are known for having low thermal conductivity, which allows it to work well as an
insulator of cold. Cardboard may have followed after due to its corrugated layering design. The
corrugation design creates air pockets. Naturally, air has a low thermal conductivity, the only
downside to its insulation capabilities are convection currents. By using air pockets, the convection
currents stay still, trapping the air. This allows the air to maximise its insulation potential and keep
the ice from melting. Plastic may have followed after cardboard due to its density and thickness.
With no special structure involved in plastic, its only saving factor would be that it is a solid material.
Solid materials are dense and tough to get through, thus giving plastic its limited thermal insulation
capabilities. Aluminium foil comes last in the experiment. This is due to its affinity for heat
conduction. By being a better heat conductor instead of insulator, the aluminium foil was the best at
allowing the most hot air in and the coldest air out. This cycle may be a result of the thinness of
aluminium foil.
Successes and Failures: By using a plastic bag, the results may be different as opposed to the use of
a plastic container. This is because the plastic bag is much thinner than the plastic container, which
reduces the insulation capabilities of plastic. The aluminium foil was layered around a plastic
container. This is likely to have altered the results of the experiment as it is not based solely on the
insulative capabilities of aluminium foil, but rather the combined insulative capabilities of plastic and
aluminium together. If the ice was instead just wrapped with aluminium foil, results are likely to
have varied. Results may have also varied from other external interferences that cannot be changed,
such as: varying room temperature, human contact, heat from electronic light sources, inaccurate
timing of observations.
Conclusion: Through the results shown below, it can be seen that Styrofoam is an excellent insulator
of cold. The results also show that cardboard and plastic are capable insulators of cold, whereas
aluminium foil is a poor insulator of cold. This is seen in the images below in the results section. The
insulation quality of the material can be seen by checking the difference in size of the ice when
comparing images from the beginning of the experiment and the end of the experiment.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrofoam
http://www.polyfoam.com.au/materials.php?Expanded-Polystyrene-EPS-1
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/Science-FairProjects/investigation%20Project%20Title%20-%20Keep%20it%20Cool.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard
http://www.livestrong.com/article/345286-what-is-a-better-insulator-paper-glass-plastic-orstyrofoam/
http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=703
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/heatra.html
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/convective-heat-transfer-d_430.html
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-are-convection-currents-definition-examples-quiz.html
Results (may be difficult to see):
Aluminium Foil
Beginning
Finished
Plastic Bag
Beginning
Finished
Cardboard
Beginning
Finished
Styrofoam
Beginning
Finished