PURPOSE
The Purpose of this experiment is to test whether or not cooling evaporation works on candy. This experiment will test this using a few simple household materials.
Hypothesis
If I cover the candy in a wet paper towel, then it will be cooler than the candy in a dry paper towel after 10 minutes under a lamp because the water on the wet paper towel will evaporate and cause evaporation cooling.
Materials
• Paper towel (3 sheets)
• Scissors
• Small bowl of room-temperature water
• Chocolate-covered peppermint candies in foil wrappers (6)
• Ruler
• Desk lamp with adjustable height and 60-watt (W) lightbulb. Note: If you don't have an adjustable-height lamp, a normal desk lamp and a pile of books can be used instead.
• Timer
• Lab notebook
Procedures
1. Cut your paper towel sheet into strips that are about 1 1/2 inches wide.
2. Take one paper towel strip and wet it by dipping it into the bowl of water and carefully wringing it out.
3. Keeping the candies in their foil wrappers, wrap one of the candies in the wet paper towel strip and wrap another candy in a dry paper towel strip.
4. Place the two candies side-by-side beneath the lamp. Bend the lamp down until the lightbulb is 1–2 inches away from the candy.
5. Using your timer, time the candies for 10 minutes.
6. After 10 minutes, take the candies out from beneath the lamp. Remove the paper towel strips and open the foil wrappers.
7. In your lab notebook, record your observations about what happened to the candy wrapped in the wet paper towel versus the candy wrapped in the dry paper towel.
8. Repeat steps 1–7 two more times with new candies and paper towel strips. Are your observations consistent between trials? Can you use the information you learned from the Introduction and your background reading to explain your observations?
Data
In my experiment, I used three different types of candies (York Peppermint Patty, 3 Musketeers, and Snickers), and I did two trials of 10 minutes for each candy. In all trials, I observed that the candy covered in a wet paper towel was cooler and had a lower temperature than the candy that was wrapped in a dry paper towel. Also, in all trials, the wet paper towel had become almost completely dry after 10 minutes under the lamp, and also, the dry candy was always melting, but the wet candy remained in room temperature state.
Data (cont.)
For the York Peppermint Patties, the average temperature of the wet paper towel was 72.2°F, and the average temperature of the dry paper towel was 73.15°. For the 3
