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Science lab report

13 March 2013 09:54

For this science experiment, we had to create a solar oven using a pizza box and then use the oven to perform and experiment. I wanted to find out how changing the amount of water in a container would affect how much and how fast the temperature of the water would increase. The controlled variable variable for the experiment was the design of the pizza oven, the dependent variable the heat of the water, and the independent variable the amount of water in the container. My hypothesis was if the amount of water is increased, then it will take longer for the water to heat up because there will be more molecules to heat up. To make the solar oven I used a plan from the internet. The equipment I used was a large pizza box, black paper, tinfoil, cling film, newspaper, sticky tape and white glue. Some tools I used were a 30 cm ruler, an exacto knife or sharp scissors, and a marker pen. How to create the pizza box: 1. On the top flap I drew a square a little bit away from the edges of the box to form a flap. I did it 2 centimetres away because I had a small pizza box 2. I then cut along the lines that I had drawn 3. I lifted up the flap of the box and then put some tinfoil over the side that would be reflecting the sun into the box 4. I then placed black paper inside the box and taped it inside. 5. I taped some cling film over the hole that was created when cutting the flap

When I was creating the solar oven, I had some problems cutting the flap correctly. I also had some difficulty making the cling film as tight as possible over the hole, which I needed to do so that it would be more like a greenhouse rather than a cloudy sky. But how do solar ovens work? As the diagram shows below, the tinfoil is used to reflect the sunlight into the pizza box. The black paper is placed in the box so it can absorb heat and the cling film is over the hole to create the green house effect.

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To conduct the experiment, we went up to the roof of the building and put the solar oven out into the sun. I changed the independent variable for the experiment, the amount of water, every five minutes as shown in the table below. Also, before I heated up the water, I left the pizza open for a few minutes so it could reach normal temperature.

Results: First test Amount of water (ml) 1ml


2

Luminosity (lux) 75,000


78,000

Temperature at start 37
35

Temperature after 5 mins. 38


39

Increase in temperature 1
4

3
4 5

82,000
82,000 82,000

36
36 33

37
40 39

1
4 6

Second test Amount of water (ml)


1

Luminosity (lux)
82,000

Temperature at start
38

Temperature after 5 mins.


42

Increase in temperature
4

2
3

80,000
83,000

37
34

39
39

2
5

4
5

85,000
86,000

33
36

37
49

4
13

From this data, I can see that the luminosity seem to have little effect on the solar oven, as you can see in the graphs below, so I think it mostly depends on where I point the oven and the angle of the reflector.

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Effect of luminosity on change in temperature during first test


7 6

5 Increase in 4 temperature 3 (celsius) 2 1


0 74,000

Test results

76,000

78,000

80,000

82,000

84,000

Luminosity (lux)

Effect of luminosity on change in temperature during second test


14 12
10 Increase in temperature 8 (celsius) 6 4 Test results

2
0 79,000 80,000 81,000 82,000 83,000 84,000 85,000 86,000 87,000

Processed data table:


Amount of water (ml) Average lux Average increase in temperature

1
2

78,500
79,000

2.5
3

3
4

82,500
83,500

3
4

84,000

9.5

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As you can see in the charts and in the tables, I was unable to find a clear pattern in my data. This might have been because of things that I could not or did not control for. One of the things that could have affected the data is the fact that the luminosity changed almost every time I did the tests the experiment. Many other things, including where the sun was in the sky, which I couldn't control, also could have affected my experiment greatly. The classes took place on different days, and sometimes at different time periods, which made it impossible to have the same conditions for both tests.
One of the things that I didn't think about while conducting the experiment was keeping the angle of the flap in the solar oven the same for each test, and this definitely something that should have been controlled. I also think that I should have used larger amounts of water. In some of my tests, especially when testing the smallest amounts of water, I couldnt get the bottom of the thermometer below the surface of the water because the water was so shallow. This could have resulted in incorrect measurements of the temperature. Also, since the tinfoil was a bit wrinkled and the cling film not perfectly tight, this could have resulted in the solar oven not heating up correctly. With the results I have now, which show no clear pattern, I am unable to prove my hypothesis. But from the data I can see that next time I conduct the experiment I would need to pay much greater attention
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attention to ensuring a consistent position on the solar oven, using more water in the container so that it would be easier to measure the correct temperature, and conducting the tests on one day, preferably a day day without a cloud in the sky.

Works Cited "Pizza Box Solar Oven." Http://old.solar-aid.org. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://old.solar-aid.org/sunnyschools/blog/Pizza%20box%20solar%20oven.pdf>.

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