Activity 1: Scientific Method and States of Matter

Here are three experimental questions to answer:

1.     Does hot water or cold water freeze faster?   

a.      Hypothesis: Cold water freezes faster than hot water because cold water doesn’t have to use as much energy as it changes states.

2.     Does hot water or cold water boil faster?

a.      Hypothesis: Hot water boils faster than cold water. The cold water heats up faster at the beginning to catch up to the temperature that the hot water is at, but from there it heats at the same pace.

3.     Does salt water freeze faster or slower than regular water?

a.      Hypothesis: Salt water freezes slower than regular water due to the amount of energy being used and the different properties.

Control Variables:

            Amount of water
            Air temperature
            2 quart Pans
            Same size burners
            High heat burners
            Amount of salt

Theory:

            Cold water freezes faster than hot water.
            Hot water boils faster than cold water.
            Salt water freezes faster than regular water.

Image of the atoms that make up water molecules:


Video or animation that shows how water molecules are arranged in the three states of matter for water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v12xG80KcZw

Scientific method/process and how each step correlates to my own experiment:

The scientific process begins with observations being reported, then confirmed by others. A hypothesis is suggested and then experiments are designed to test the hypothesis. From here the hypothesis is either rejected or supported and if it is rejected, create a new hypothesis and try new experiments. Once the hypothesis is supported repeat the experiment to confirm results to form a theory and to continue experimenting. In this lab I was given three questions and created hypotheses to test. I continued to test these by boiling hot water, cold water, freezing hot water, freezing cold water, and boiling salt water to test my hypotheses.

Repeatability of experiment:

The repeatability of this experiment went pretty well. I had one pot that was shaped a little bit differently than the others that would take a little bit longer to boil, and I actually found that out from this experiment as it consistently took longer. The average vales were 15 minutes 43 seconds for cold water to freeze, 32 minutes 29 seconds for hot water to freeze, cold water boils in 2 minutes 46 seconds, 1 minutes 32 seconds for hot water to boil, and 57 seconds for salt water to boil.

	Cold Water Freezes	Hot Water Freezes	Cold Water Boils	Hot Water Boils	Salt Water Boils
1	14:32 minutes	33:11 minutes	2:03 minutes	0:54 minutes	0:50 minutes
2	15:48 minutes	29:50 minutes	2:14 minutes	1:33 minutes	0:58 minutes
3	15:37 minutes	35:27 minutes	3:22 minutes	2:10 minutes	1:03 minutes
Average	15 minutes 43 seconds	32 minutes 29 seconds	2 minutes  46 seconds	1minute     32 seconds	57 seconds

Here is a photo of water freezing:

 This is a photo of water boiling:

Experiment Summary:

            Science needs to be testable, reproducible, explanatory, predictive, and tentative. In this experiment I worked towards these five characteristics through my hypotheses and my work that I put into it. In this experiment I studied matter and the changes of it, for example water change from a liquid to a solid.

            I used the same three pots for each test, one cup of water per pot, and when I used salt I used one tablespoon of salt in each pot. I tried to keep the experiment as accurate as possible, however I worry about other things like what if the temperatures of the pots are different at the beginning when I tested the hot water boiling compared to the cold water boiling. All in all the experiment went well though. I was happy with how my results turned out and proved my hypotheses. Cold water freezes faster than hot water, hot water boils faster than cold water, and salt water boils faster than hot water. I decided to use hot water in my salt water as well to see if that would aide it in its ability to boil as well and used that as a comparison to the hot water.

            This experiment is useful in the real world because now whenever I need to boil water, I know that if I use hot water, and put salt in the water, it will boil faster. Prior to doing this experiment I was doing some research and looking up the questions. I found that there were a lot of myths as to what boiled faster and this experiment was able to put some of those myths to rest.