Conduction Rate Lab

The set up…

Materials

• Ring stand and clamp• matches• candle• Aluminum, steel, brass and copper rods (1 of

each)• Bunsen burners• Tin foil• 12 paper clips• Goggles• stopwatch

Materials

The rods

Setting up the rods

• Place the ruler on the tin foil.• Lay a rod alongside it and place 3

paperclips at 5 cm. Intervals.• Light a candle. Be sure to have on your

goggles.• Drip 3 drops of wax at the point where the

paperclip touches the rod.• Allow a short amount of time for the wax to

cool and harden.

5 cm increments

Light a candle

Add 3 drops of wax

3 clips attached

Setting up the Bunsen Burner

• Firmly push the hose onto the gas nozzle located on the lab table.

• One partner should prepare a match while the other gets ready to turn on the gas (the gas is on when the handle is over the nozzle, off when it is at a 90° angle to the nozzle).

• Light the match. The partner should turn on the gas.

• Adjust the flame so that it is blue and controlled.

Attaching the hose

Attaching the rods to the stand

• To attach the rods to the ring stand, use the screw found on the side of the elbow clamp.

• Bring the stand and rod over to the lit Bunsen burner.

• Use the other screw to adjust the height of the rod so that when placed in the flame it will be about 1.5 cm above the bottom of the burner, directly in the flame.

Clamping the rod

Adjusting the height

Testing

• Once the rod is placed in the blue flame, start the stopwatch.

• Continue timing as the heat conducts through the rods and paperclips fall off.

• Record the time when the 5 cm., 10 cm., and 15 cm. paper clips fall off.

• DO NOT STOP THE STOPWATCH AS PAPER CLIPS FALL OFF.

Timing

Paper clips falling off

Recording data

Clean up

• Once all 3 paper clips have fallen off, carefully remove the rod and place it hot side down in the coffee can filled with water.

• Scrape all wax off of the paper clips onto the tin foil (not like in the picture!).

• Dump all excess wax into the garbage.• Set all materials up as they were when

you entered the lab.

Cooling off the rods

Scrape wax off the paper clips

Dumping the excess wax

Making Mr. Rand happy with a clean lab.

Resetting the station