Experiment #1 (Solid)
a). My hypothesis was incorrect because I thought the fire going around the brass ball would make it smaller and when the ball through the hoop it would fit easily. I was wrong because the heat made the particles expand which lead to making the brass ball bigger. My second hypothesis was correct; I had thought the water would make the ball smaller and therefore fit through the hoop easier. The water cooled down the ball making the particles contract. When we tried to fit the ball through it went through with ease. b). I saw that the ball fit through the ring before we tried our experiment. Once we had put it over the fire the particles expanded, so then there was more space between the particles. That led …show more content…
I think if we held the ball over the fire for about five minutes and then used ice-cold water instead of just cold tap water the experiment would’ve turned out to be very different. The ball would’ve expanded to a point that in wouldn’t have been able to fit through the hoop at all. When we would’ve put the brass ball in the ice water, we would’ve seen a lot more condensation and heard the sizzling going more strongly. After we had put it in the ice water the brass ball would’ve fit through the hoop easily because it would cool down the brass ball even quicker.
Also, we could’ve put the brass ball in ice water first and then put it over the fire. I think there would also be sizzling because of the water still dripping off of the ball. I think once we put the ball over the fire it would take longer for the brass ball to get red hot and expand because the particles had already contracted from being put in the cold water. The particles would have to expand even more now to not fit through the hoop.
d). To make sure the experiment went well, we made sure the ring stayed around the same temperature as much as possible. If the temperature of the ring changed a lot, the brass ball might end up fitting when it is heated or the ring might be too big for the ball after the ball is cooled. This might affect our results by thinking that the brass ball contrasted a lot after being cooled by the water when it was really just the thermal energy that made the ring