Hot Coffee Insulation Research

Hot coffee is a morning staple in the United States. But it often tends to go cold when you need to run to the bathroom or are putting your attention on something else for that matter. This is because of one word…. “Insuation”. On people’s morning commute they usually use plastic or metal to-go cups. That claim to have double-wall insulation. “The cheap ones with air between two walls do little to keep anything hot” (Carolyn Sherlock, 2012). So what’s the best solution, a glass coffee cup or mug “Glass, for instance, is a very good insulator at room temperature, but becomes a conductor when heated to a very high temperature.” (Conductors and Insulators, 2016). They might not be the big tall plastic cups with a lid but they’ll do the trick of keeping hot things hot. …show more content…
Insulation is when you try to maintain something tempature. There are many things that are good insulators. “Some common insulators are glass, plastic, rubber, air, and wood” (Conductors and Insulators 2016). Insulation isn’t only for keeping things hot, it also keeps things cold and keep them fresh and from getting spoiled. For instance your refrigerator is one HUGE insulator it keeps your food fresh and frozen. But there is one much smaller version of this. An ice pack, ice packs keep school lunches cold all day. I’m not necessarily focussing on what’s in the ice pack but more of what’s around it. Believe it or not the plastic bags around homemade ice packs help the ice maintain it’s temperature. It does a pretty good job of keeping the ice cold. But things that are denser will most likely maintain coldness such as styrofoam or