Heat Conservation Solution (starlite cup)

 Throughout our journey we were requested to invent or create a way of conserving the temperature of our chosen drink. We chose hot coffee as our drink of choice and our solution was creating our own brand that sells Starlite Cups that you can either dispose or reuse depending on your desire. 

Our cups consist of (in order):

- Glue 

- Corn starch

- Baking soda (bicarbonate of sodium)

As the ingredients are mixed together in a bowl they form a dough consistency which we later shaped as cup and placed it to dry for a few hours. When it is fully dry we have tested it with a hot drink inside and covered it with a lid. When we compared a metal thermos and our starlite cups the results were unexpected.

The results:

The metal thermos:

We placed in a hot drink at the beginning temperature of 100C and inclosed the thermos and started a stopwatch for an hour.

The starlite cup:

We placed in a hot drink at the beginning temperature of 100C and inclosed the cup and started another stopwatch for an hour.

Finding the thermal energy and temperatures:

Metal cup (thermos): 

Temperature: 87 - 100 = -43 C

Thermal Energy= M C T

M= 0.600 kg

C= 4.186 kJ/kg C

T= -43 C

Uth= 0.600 x 4.186 x -43

Uth = -107.9988 J

Starlite cup:

Temperature: 89 - 100 = = -11

Thermal Energy = M C T

M= 0.600 kg

C= 4.186 kJ/kg C 

T= -11 C

Uth= 0.600 x 4.186 x -11

Uth= -27.2 J

Now that we have both temperatures and both thermal energies, after comparisons we can all conclude that our starlite cup holds heat and can keep the temperature on low drop levels in a greater amount of time.