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The Flammability of Household Fabrics |
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The Flammability of Household Fabrics |
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Hypothesis:
Our hypothesis is that the household fabrics will burn very fast and smell very bad.
We think cotton will burn the fastest but polyester will smell the worst
We think the fabric will turn black or grey and turn to ash, but some will just turn crusty and dry
Materials:
*Fabrics:
- Two pieces of polyester (one for before and one for after)
- Two pieces of silk
- Two pieces of cotton fabric
- Two pieces of wool fabric
- Two pieces of fleece
*Work area:
- Fire extinguisher
- Plate, and matches or a lighter.
Procedure:
1) Set up a safe work zone with fire extinguisher (have parental supervision)
2) Place first fabric on a plate, and light it on fire. Observe.
3) Repeat step two for as many fabrics you have.
4) Record your observations.
Why we chose this project:
We chose this project because it seemed interesting to us and we like to set things on fire to see how they react.
(We always use safety) also it can show you which materials are the most dangerous and the safest to smother an
out of control fire with.
Observations:
Our observations show that sine fabrics like fleece or polyester turned into a liquid plastic and then hardened
when they cooled. Other fabrics smoldered before the flame went out completely. The wool and linen smell very
natural almost like a wood burning fire or burned hair, and the fleece and polyester smell like burning plastic
(very bad). When silk was burning it shriveled up into small charcoal ash balls on the frayed edge. When the
cotton was burned it turned into blackish-brown ash. Most of them lit on fire immediately but some of them took
a few seconds to ignite.
Conclusion:
Our conclusion is that the fabrics varied in burning lengths. An example is that wool was very fast and silk was a
bit slower at burning completely. We also concluded that all the fabrics smelled bad, but wool and linen smelled
more natural. Fleece definitely smelled the worst out of them all. We could really smell the difference between a
man-made fabric (fleece and polyester) and a natural product (everything else) from smell, look, and texture.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/flammability
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/project>31_58.html
http://youth.net/nsrc/sci/sci0/45.html#anchor/83508
http://m.ca.yahoo.com/?fr=fptb-hptbs