How Animals Survive Winter Months Essay

How Animals Survive Winter Months

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Past module on Energy

Introduction

This assessment is all about investigating how animals manage to survive the cold winter months. Using some research I have undertaken, I have found out that warm-blooded animals use several ways of surviving the winter. These include the following:

* Migration

Many birds migrate to warmer regions

* Insulation

Many animals are insulated against the cold by means of fur, blubber or feathers

* Huddling

Some animals keep each other warm by huddling together

* Hibernating

Some animals

That is what this investigation is set up to discover, which method of keeping warm is the best for warm-blooded animals. We will do this by using test tubes and hot water instead of real animals, as real animals are hard to find and test on.

I have also found out quite a lot about the different ways that heat can escape, as this will help my investigation if I know some background knowledge. There are three main ways in which heat can escape from bodies these are:

* Conduction

This is the transfer of heat through a substance without it moving because of a difference in temperature. It uses free electrons to travel so that the object doesn't have to move. It requires physical contact between the bodies or portions of bodies exchanging heat.

* Convection

This is the transport of heat in a fluid by the motion of the fluid itself. It occurs through the motion of a liquid or gas in contact with matter at a different temperature.

* Radiation

This is the transfer of infrared heat by waves with no particles of matter being involved. It does not require contact or the presence

Set up the apparatus as shown above.

2. Wrap a thickness of 2cm of shredded paper before the water has been poured into the test tube (we will do this so we have a variety of different thicknesses) around the test tube and place the thermometer into the tube.

3. Test the temperature of the water, record and start the stopwatch.

4. When 1 minute is over, test the temperature for a second time and record.

5. Repeat for another 9 minutes until 11 temperatures have been recorded.

6. Then, repeat steps 2-7 for the thicknesses of 4cm, 6cm, 8cm and 10cm, recording all of the results.

7. If you need a more accurate result, repeat each of the different thicknesses another two times and then find out the average.

Fair Test

To keep this a fair test l will ensure that the following stay constant:

* The amount of water in the test tube.

* The temperature of the water at the beginning.

* The time the experiment is being timed for.

* The insulation used.

* The angle that the test tube is placed into the beaker. This is