Caution when Hot!!!

Project #1495 on iSENSEProject.org

As time passes by American habits have changed.  The days of sitting on the porch listening to baseball games still exist but as our lives become increasingly busy, some of our habits change.  One very popular thing that many Americans do today is drink more coffee.  The expansion of Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks make this drink readily available at nearly all times.

This experiment will demonstrate the value of an insulated coffee cup vs a basic porcelain coffee mug as to maintaining temperature.

Materials:

Insulated Coffee Mug

Porcelain Coffee Mug

Hot Coffee from a Keurig machine

Temperature Probe

Chromebook or any Computer

Vernier Software found at the Google Web Store 

Procedure:

Heat a pod of coffee in a Keurig Machine and pour the coffee(no additives please) into an insulated coffee mug.  Immediately, place a temperature probe into the coffee and record the temperature for 4 minutes. Record the results in the Vernier software package found in the Google Web Store

Next repeat the above procedure except, place the coffee in a porcelain cup(non insulated) for 4 minutes.  

Conclusions:

Is there a difference in temperature between the 2 experiments?

What do you think would happen if we tested the temperature of the coffee for 5 minutes or longer?

If you like your coffee very hot, would you recommend using an insulated cup in the future?

When originally poured from the Keurig, does the temperature vary immediately upon impact into the cup?

How much does each cup of coffee decrease over the 4 minutes?