Do Different Surface Materials Heat Differently?

Travis Johnson

Physical Geography 1401-503

1:00- 2:50

Question: Do different surface materials heat differently?

Hypothesis: Asphalt will get the hottest overall because it is black in color, thus exponentially increasing the heat. Water will heat the slowest because in my previous knowledge water takes a while to heat up. Garden soil will cool the quickest because it is wet and will dry fast. Sand will retain heat because of its chemical compound.

Procedure: The experiment layout consisted of 4 plastic containers each holding a different material (sand, water, mud, and asphalt). The containers contained 3 different thermometers to measure temperature. One thermometer was elevated above the surface of the material, the second was situated at the surface of the container, and the last thermometer was angled deep into the material. Above all of this there was a lamp perched above the material, with its light directed down. The first part of the experiment was to determine the control, with the light off we measured the temperatures of each thermometer at each material and logged them onto our paper. Then we turned on the lamps and set a timer and waited 10 minutes. After the ten minutes we measured the temperatures again, recording our answers and set the timer for another 10 minutes. At 20 minutes we repeated the process by collecting the same data and recording it once more, then set a timer and waited another 10 minutes. At 30 minutes we again recorded the temperatures but after we got done recording we turned the lamp off, then set the timer for another 10 minutes. At 40 minutes we recorded the temperatures again and then set the timer for another 10 minutes. At 50 minutes we repeated the process once again recording each material and then set a timer for 10 minutes. At 60 minutes we finally finished our chart by recording the temperatures one last time. Now that the experiment was complete we went to analyze the data.

Results:

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Discussion: Sand heated up faster overtime than the other three elements and was the fastest to cool down. Asphalt was the slowest to heat up as well as the slowest to cool down. While mud and water remained semi constant thorough the 60 minutes of the experiment. Albedo can be shown in this experiment by how the sand reflected the heat from the lamp bouncing off the surface and reaching the air temperature. Asphalt provided us with the best example of conduction. The data showed that deep within the asphalt it remained hot and even continued to heat up while the light was turned off. Convection was shown the water, when the water was being heated the deep water stayed constant for a while until the 60th minute which proves that convection (although very mild) was present. Latent heat could be seen through the mud. With the water within the soil evaporating the surface cooled off much faster than the soil deep within the mud.

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