Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

toxxn — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 15:44:12 GMT

I just have to say, I love your approach on incorporating fun games with experiments such as the "how long can one keep a drink hot" challenge and "temperature battleships". This demonstrates a wonderful use of ingenuity that could get anyone more interested in an experiment. I wish my teachers in school would have introduced this kind of fun when it came to our lab work, as I believe it would have gathered more interest from a larger audience within the classroom at the same time making our experiments that much more fun. This would also allow a larger group of students to collaborate together, rather than just working with a single lab partner. Great work on this blog!

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

janisalnis — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 20:39:06 GMT

Thanks for a nice illustration about coffee mug. You could try to wrapping it aluminum foil. I dont know how large will be effect.

Best insulator is vacuum. Try a vacuum flask (Dewar, Thermoss in Europe) for storing coffee.

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

Former Member — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 22:08:03 GMT

Interesting ideas for a class, I like it. I did something along this line some time ago when I made an Arduino data logger with 5 thermocouples & an LCD. I was looking at sample preservation/thermal stability/biological failure. I had to come up with the best option for water sample preservation during transport to the lab. It had to be simple & cheap.

I tested a Styrofoam box vs plastic icebox with ice or blue gel packs. The control was an empty icebox (as they currently used) and ambient air temperature. I was impressed with the data the arduino logged and the LCD let me see how the experiment was progressing. The hardware made it quite clear which the winning combo was and resulted in better pass rates for our samples [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-1bf69542-1d4e-44ed-bdbe-655d7fd72435/contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16]

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

dragonstyne — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 02:10:18 GMT

Great job Shabaz, I am enjoying this.

-Steve

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

DAB — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 20:03:10 GMT

It has been a while since I used thermocouples.

We used them in the lab all of the time and they can be very accurate.

Good post

DAB

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

mikedavis — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 15:31:02 GMT

Good one Shabaz. I did a similar experiment in my post about the various coffee mugs in house and how effective they are in keeping coffee drinkable (not too hot, not too cold). http://www.element14.com/community/groups/stemacademy/blog/2014/09/02/simple-science-experiment-with-the-raspberry-pi

I think a really good question based on some of the question you showed is, 'Should Starbucks double cup their drinks or double lid them?' This is great and easy to do. The only thing that I am looking for is a good interface. Making the temperature probe is easy. Making the interface so anyone can start it, would be a very good thing.

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

mconners — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:26:58 GMT

Nice, Shabaz. I need to put my post up soon.

Mike

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

jw0752 — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 07:05:23 GMT

Hi Shabaz, This is a very nice science experiment and very applicable to a lot of real world problems. In my work I saw a lot of K type thermocouples as they are used quite extensively in dental clinic sterilizers. Thanks for the interesting presentation.

John

RE: Temperature Experiments with Thermocouples

timswift — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 02:31:17 GMT

Could i use a arduino?

Tim