Wax Ball Experiment! by Mitchell Sullivan [Student FVHS]

Goal

17knotthi0602 — 2014-04-04 17:42:16 UTC

Our goal for this experiment is to see which ball of wax falls off which wire first. We have one thin, one medium, and one thick wire. With equal amounts of wax on the end of each wire and the other end in the flame of a candle, we will see which ball falls first.

Our prediction

17knotthi0602 — 2014-04-04 17:45:50 UTC

We think that either the ball of wax on the thick or thin wire will fall first. The thick because it has more surface area and might heat up slower, but hotter. The thin because it may heat up faster and melt the wax faster.

Materials

17knotthi0602 — 2014-04-04 17:48:09 UTC

1. three wires (one thick, one medium, one thin)

2. three balls of wax that are roughly the same size

3. three candles

4. paper plate

5. our brains

Video of the first wire to drop its wax

2014-04-04 17:48:29 UTC

The thick wire is the first to heat up and drop its wax ball. Our prediction was correct!

17knotthi0602 — 2014-04-04 17:51:39 UTC

Conduction/Heat

17sullivanma255 — 2014-04-04 17:52:05 UTC

Conduction is the property to transfer heat from one object to another. Heat is described on how hot or cold an object is.

Process

17knotthi0602 — 2014-04-04 17:52:38 UTC

step 1: light candle and gather small ball of wax at the end of each wire

2: make sure each wire is the same length

3. place opposite end of each wire into its own flame at the same time

4. wait for wax ball to melt and fall off

Demonstration

17sullivanma255 — 2014-04-04 17:55:05 UTC

Heat is transferred to the wax by putting the wire in the flame of the candle. The flame sends heat waves up the copper wire to make the end of the wire hot enough to melt the wax which in turn makes it drop from the wire.

Order of dropping

17sullivanma255 — 2014-04-04 17:58:54 UTC

The biggest wire dropped first

The middle wire dropped second

The smallest wire dropped last

Explanation

17sullivanma255 — 2014-04-04 18:00:24 UTC

The biggest wire dropped first since it had more surface area which speeds up the transfer of heat to the end of the wire. Since the smallest wire had very few surface area, it slowed down the transfer of heat since there are less molecules in the object.