Burning Paper Lab

Science Paper Lab

Research Question:  How does changing the state of paper affect how fast it burns?

Background Information:  The reaction we are creating is a chemical reaction involving turning paper into ash.  This cannot be reversed, so it is a chemical reaction.  

Hypothesis:

Riena:  I think that if we use paper that has been wet and then dried, it will burn the longest.  This is because remnants of water may still remain in paper.  The more wet a piece of paper is, the longer it will take to burn.  

Variables:
    -Independent Variable:  This is the variable that we change.  In this experiment, it will be the state of the paper we burn that is the dependent variable.
    -Dependent Variable:  This is the variable that is the response of what happens to the independent variable.  In this case, the dependent variable is the time it takes for each paper to burn.  
    -Controlled Variable:  The controlled variable is one that stays the same throughout the experiment. It does not change and is not allowed to change unpredictably.

Safety Cautions:
-While burning the paper, make sure that you burn it in a fire-safe container
-Be careful that none of the fire escapes from the container
-Do not let anyone touch the paper while  it is burning
-Do not get too close to the paper while it is burning
-You may want to wear goggles to protect your eyes, although these are not vital to the experiment

List of Materials:
-Four sheets of A4 paper
-Matches
-Something to burn the paper in
-Writing Materials
-Stopwatch

Procedure:
1.) Burn a regular piece of paper
2.) Record observations*
3.) Crumple up that piece of paper the same size as the first, and burn it
4.) Record observations
5.) Wet another piece of paper, let it dry, crumple it up, and burn it.
6.) Record observations
7.) Wet another paper, let it dry, and then burn it.
8.) Record observations

*Fill out all observations in data table below


Data Table:

State of Paper:	Time it Takes to Burn (seconds):	Other Observations:
Regular	78	Had to re-light
Wet and Dried	31	Much wind
Crumpled	67
Crumpled, Wet and Dried	105

Graph

Conclusion: 

          My hypothesis was correct.  The "crumpled, wet and dried" paper took the longest to burn by a long shot.  As you can see in both the graph and table above, the paper that we soaked in water, dried, and crumpled up took 105 seconds to burn, whereas the paper that burned the second slowest took 78 seconds to burn.  The "wet and dried" paper might also have taken a longer time to burn, but while we were burning it, a gust of wind hit us.  This meant that there was more oxygen, and therefore more fuel, which meant that the paper burned more quickly. 

Further Inquiry:

          While we were conducting the experiment, many things went wrong.  There was an inconsistent amount of wind, and we had to re-light some of the papers.  The amount of wind in an experiment matters because wind affects how much oxygen is present.  Oxygen fuels fire: the more oxygen, the greater the fire.  Also, too much wind will blow out a small fire, and then we have to re-light the paper.  One of the fires went out, so we had to relight the paper, which took time.  This would have made us collect incorrect data.  If we were to do this experiment again, we should light our papers on a wind-less day.  This means we would not have wind, and our experiment would be unaffected.  If we wanted to collect even more information, we could measure the mass of each paper before and after we soaked them in water and dried them.  If we did that, we could see if paper gains mass after being soaked in water.