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Lab #22.8 Heat: Chapter 22  I'm Melting! I'm Melting!

Purpose
In this activity, you will investigate curious heat transfer ability of different surfaces.

Discussion
If you walk around the house with bare feet, you probably notice that a tile floor feels much colder than a carpeted floor or rug. It’s hard to believe that they might actually have the same temperature. The tile feels colder because it is a better conductor than carpet. Heat is conducted from your warmer feet to the cooler floor faster when the floor is tile than when the floor is carpet. So your feet are cooled faster by tile than they are by carpet at the same cool temperature. In this activity, you will see which kinds of surfaces transfer heat most rapidly.

Required Equipment

2- Black Defrosting trays, 2- Black Foam Trays, 4- Ice Cubes, Paper Towel.

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Student Worksheet   Teacher Notes

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The "ice cubes" used in this experiment are any pieces of ice that you may have available. The "paper towel" is any paper towels or other absorbent material you may have. This is used for wiping up the melting ice cubes so you may want a couple of them.