Insulated Hot Cup

Which is the Best Cup to Insulate Hot Water?

For my science fair project, I decided to test which cup is the best to insulate hot water. I chose to do this project because when holding a cup of hot liquid, my hand always burns through certain cups. For future references, I wanted to experiment with three materials that are known for insulating hot water. I tested three different cups: glass, styrofoam, and ceramic. I hypothesized that the ceramic mug would be the best insulator for the hot water. I hypothesized this because the ceramic would keep the water hot because the pockets of air in porous ceramic mugs act as insulators.

To test my hypothesis, I started out by getting a pot of water and heating it to seventy degrees celsius. Then, I got my glass, styrofoam, and ceramic cups. I got three of each cup to test it multiple times. After that, I poured one cup of the water into each of the three cups. I then placed the cups in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes. I kept the temperature of the refrigerator the same throughout the experiment. I stopped my timer every five minutes to check the temperature of the water using a thermometer. After finding the temperature of the water after taking it out of the refrigerator, I found the difference between the starting temperature and the temperature after fifteen minutes in the refrigerator. I repeated this test three times for each cup to get more accurate results. Then, I took the total temperature drop from each of the three tests and calculated the average temperature drop for each cup.

After doing these three tests, I calculated the average temperature drop for each cup. The average temperature drop for the glass cup was 28.4 degrees celsius. Next, the average drop for the ceramic cup was 31.7 degrees celsius. Lastly, the average temperature drop for the styrofoam cup was 20.4 degrees celsius. The styrofoam ended up being the best cup to insulate heat. The glass cup’s average temperature dropped 8 more degrees than the styrofoam cup. The ceramic cup’s average temperature dropped 11.3 more degrees.

From doing this experiment, I learned that styrofoam cups are the best cups to use when drinking hot liquids. By using them, I will not burn my hand. According to the data, my hypothesis was incorrect. I hypothesized that the ceramic cups would have the lowest temperature drop, therefore insulating the most heat. After doing this project, I learned that the styrofoam had the lowest temperature drop, and insulated the most heat from the water. The average temperature drop for the ceramic cup was 31.7 degrees celsius, while the average temperature drop for the styrofoam cup was 20.4 degrees celsius. I believe my experiment was accurate. Overall, I think this experiment was a fair test.