In some industries such as the spacecraft builders, the materials needed to build need to have the ability to absorb great heat and then cool off quickly. There is constant scientific research being done to improve upon the materials that already are available to us and new innovations being done to invent materials that do not yet exist.

In this simple experiment we are going to consider a few easy to find around the house materials and see how long they take to heat up and which one cools down the fastest. Here’s how to conduct the experiment.  Ask an adult to help you and get two solids that can be easily measured out such as baking flour and castor sugar.

Now use identical plastic bowls to measure out the same quantity of both flour and sugar. Place them both in the microwave and heat for a minute. Bring them out and use a cooking thermometer to measure the temperature of both materials. Write them down in your record book. Again heat up the materials in the microwave for another minute and repeat the process.

Once they have absorbed all the heat that they can and are not raising the temperature, leave the bowls out to cool. Measure the temperature after every two minutes to see which one returns to the original temperature first. That’s the one that cools faster in this science experiment. You can repeat the experiment with other materials as well.