SBA # YY MM DD Diya Vaswani

10 2023 05 15

Title: Conduction

Aim: To investigate the conduction of heat

Material/Apparatus:

 Rods  Nails

 Gloves  Stopwatch

 Goggles  Tripod

 Bunsen burner  Spatula

 Candle wax

Procedure:

1. Rods of the same size with different materials were chosen.

2. The rods were rested on a tripod and a small nail was attached at one end of each rod

using a drop of candle wax.

3. The same amount of candle wax was used for each nail.

4. A stopwatch was started and began to heat the other ends of the rods with a Bunsen

burner.

5. How long it takes for each nail to fall off was timed.

6. The results were recorded on a bar chart.

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10 2023 05 15

Diagram:

DIAGRAM SHOWING SETUP OF EXPERIMENT

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 SBA # YY MM DD Diya Vaswani
10 2023 05 15

Observations:

In this experiment the observation to be shown is Conduction. For the experiment, three different

material rods were used with small nails attached at the ends of each one with candle wax and

rested on a tripod with a Bunsen burner underneath. The material with the nail that stays on the

longest is considered the best conductor of heat.

When all the rods were placed on the trifold with the Bunsen burner underneath, the rods started

to turn a slight black color, where the Bunsen burner was placed.

The first material was the copper rod. In this experiment the copper’s time for how long the nail

stuck on was 00:30:52. This was compared with the second and third material. The copper had

the shortest time compared to the second and third material.

The second material was the steel rod. During this experiment, the metal’s time for how long the

nail stuck on was 00:35.43. This was compared with the first and third experiment. The metal

had the longer time compared to the first and the shorter time compared with the third.

The third material was the glass rod. In this experiment, the nail that stuck on to the glass rod did

not fall. This was compared with the first and second experiment. The glass rod had the longest

time, since the nail did not fall, compared to the first and second experiment.

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 SBA # YY MM DD Diya Vaswani
10 2023 05 15

It can be said that the glass rod material is the best conductor of heat since it stayed on the

longest time compared to the other two materials, the steel rod and the copper rod.

TABLE SHOWING OBSERVATIONS IN EXPERIMENT

Lap # Material type Time

Lap 1 Copper 00:30:52

Lap 2 Steel 00:35:43

Lap 3 Glass 

BAR CHART SHOWING OBSERVATIONS IN EXPERIMENT

Lap #3 Glass
Lap #

Lap #2 Metal

Lap #1 Copper

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40

Time (seconds)

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 SBA # YY MM DD Diya Vaswani
10 2023 05 15

Analysis:

Conduction is the process of transferring energy by making direct physical contact with a

substance or a particle. Heat or electricity are two possible forms of this energy. One example of

heat conduction is touching the hot stovetop.

In this experiment the best conductor was the copper. The copper was the best since copper

consists of electrons which move during a free state. The free electrons are also referred to as

conduction electrons. The worst material was the glass rod. This was because glass has no free

electrons to conduct heat. This meant that metals are good conductors whereas glass is a bad

conductor of heat.

During the experiment the two of the rods started to turn a black color, this is due to the process

called surface oxidation. When heating with the Bunsen burner, the copper metal melted

gradually and turned black on the surface.

Precautions:

 Gloves and protective goggles were warn when heating metals.

 Bunsen burner was used with care

 Glass apparatus was handled with care

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 SBA # YY MM DD Diya Vaswani
10 2023 05 15

Sources of error:

 Not enough candle wax was used

Limitations:

 Bunsen burner was defective

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the conduction of heat was investigated. The experiment resulted with the copper

rod being the best conductor of heat and the glass rod being the worst. Another conclusion that

was made was that when the rods start to turn black, the process was called surface oxidation.

Reflection:

From this experiment, I learnt that copper is the best conductor of heat and glass is the worst.

Another thing I learnt is that when the rods started to turn black, this is because of surface

oxidation. The last thing I learnt was a new apparatus which is tripod, this was used to hold the

rods on top. Conduction can be used in real life like when frying vegetables in a pan, the heat

transfer takes place from the flame to the pan and then to the vegetables.

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