Hot Potato Lab-Inquiry

By: Joseph Rinaldi and Sean O’Donnell

Purpose: To discover if there is a correlation between surface area and retaining heat.

Hypothesis: The smaller potato will retain heat longer than the larger potato because it is denser and more compact.

Materials: 1 small potato, 1 big potato, Microwave, 2 Thermometers

Procedure: 1. Gather 1 big and small potato
                   2. Heat both potatoes in the microwave for 10 minuets.
                   3. Remove from heat and take initial temperatures.
                   4.Take the temperatures of each potato each minute for 15 minuets.

Conclusion:  The purpose of this experiment was to discover if there was a correlation between service area and retaining heat. We set up a controlled experiment where we heated two potatoes, one small potato and one large potato. After we heated them up we took her temperature then every minute for 15 minutes we recorded the temperature. Our results from our experiment showed that the smaller potato lost heat quicker. These results refuted our hypothesis because we initially said that the larger potato would not retain heat as long as the smaller one. Our experiment had sources of errors which included a slight movement of the thermometer they change the temperature.