The Effect of Paper Material on Burn Rate

Table: 18
Experimentation location: Home
Regulated Research (Form 1c): No
Project continuation (Form 7): No

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Abstract:

Bibliography/Citations:

https://www.usfa.fema.gov/ 


Additional Project Information

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Research paper:
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Project files
 

Research Plan:

 

Hypothesis

 

 I predict that if I change the type of paper every trial, construction paper will be the slowest to turn to ash. Construction paper is stiffer and rougher than computer paper and newspaper. It is made for crafts and is meant to last, unlike newspaper. Since construction paper is firmer and slightly thicker, I predict that construction paper will last the longest.

 

Variables

Independent Variable: The types of paper

Dependent Variable: The time it takes the independent variable to burn

 

Controlled Variables

 

The size of the paper

If each type of paper is a different size it will make the data inaccurate.

Cut each type of paper to the exact same size.

Temperature

Could affect how the speed the paper burns.

Do the trials the same day and time to keep the same temperature.

The amount of wind

The paper won’t be able to burn as fast.

Do the trials relatively at the same time.

Person who holds the tongs

Different people could hold the tongs differently

The same person holds the tongs for each trial.

Person who manages the stopwatch

To make the experiment the most accurate possible.

Same person starts and stops the stopwatch.

The type of tongs

Different tongs could affect the data.

Use the same tongs for each trial.

Where the paper is placed on the burner

Depending on where you put the paper affects how fast the paper burns.

When holding the pieces of paper over the fire put them in the same place for each trial.

 

Materials

 

  1. 1 3x3 in. piece of Construction paper
  2. 1 3x3 in. piece of Tissue paper
  3. 1 3x3 in. piece of Newspaper
  4. 1 Stopwatch
  5. 1 pair of tongs
  6. Burner or open flame
  7. 1 Bowl of water
  8. Partner/adult

Procedure

 

  1. Gather all of the materials.
  2. Take the 3x3 inch piece of construction paper outside and place it in between the tongs 
  3. Hold the paper at the very corner and edge of it.
  4. Make sure that the paper will stay there and not blow away.
  5. One person grabs the end of the tongs (not the part holding the paper) and the other person takes the stopwatch.
  6. 1st person puts the part of the tongs that is carrying the paper over the fire/burner.
  7. Once the paper has started burning the second person immediately starts the stopwatch
  8. Make sure to keep the paper in the fire. 
  9. Once the paper has fully burned stop the stopwatch and let go of the part of the paper that the tongs were holding.
  10. Douse the ashes or tiny pieces of paper with water.
  11. Record your observations and the time it took the paper to fully burn.
  12. Repeat steps 2-7 two more times with the other types of paper. 
  13.  Write down the conclusion and results to the experiment.

 

Safety Precautions

  1. Do this experiment under adult supervision.
  2. Keep a bowl of water near you at all times.
  3. The adult should be the only one turning on or off the burner.
  4. After putting the tongs in the fire, place them in cold water.

Questions and Answers

1. My major objective for this project was to make a good and detailed experiment. My plan to achieve this goal was to work hard and make sure all of my data was accurate. I wanted to have a simple research topic and experiment because the more complex it got the harder it was to add many details. In my experiment I was trying to answer a question about paper.

 

2. Some major tasks that I had to perform in order to complete my project were writing my procedure and preparing my materials. Writing a procedure takes a lot of work because you want someone else who has never seen your project to be able to perform the procedure and get the same results that you did.

3. Something new about my project is that I have never written a science experiment before. This was my first time ever writing a procedure and collecting data on my own. My project's objective is not different from anything I have ever seen because everyone always has a first time writing an experiment on your own. I believe that my work is somewhat unique because I haven't researched or seen anyone ever test the combustibility of paper in the format that I did.

 

4. Like I wrote before the most challenging part of completing my project was writing my procedure you need to make sure that it is detailed and simple. You want to make sure that the steps are specific and precise. I overcame problems of writing my procedure by pretending I had never read it before and pretending to do my experiment. I learned that you want your procedure to be simple and easy for almost anyone to follow.

 

5. Something I would change in this project would be adding more trials for each type of paper. I would make this improvement because it would help me get more accurate results. When only using 1 trial for each type of paper you don’t get the most accurate results because each trial you might not get the same data. Another extension that I might add to this method is changing the size of the paper to 4in by 4in. Making the paper bigger will allow the person doing the experiment to gather qualitative data because each trial would last longer.

6. Working on this project did give me a few ideas for the future. A few of these ideas are how long would tissue paper last and if I increase the size of each type of paper. I know that in the future I want to do a project based on climate change and how to stop forest fires.

7. Covid 19 didn't affect the completion of my project that much. I did my experiment at my house instead of a public space making Covid 19 not a major problem.