The Flammability of Household Products
by Gino G.
3rd Place - Physics

Question: My question is which fabric will burn completely in the shortest amount of time?

Research: I learned while doing my research that: Linen is made with fibers from the flax plant, Broad Cloth is made of wool, Terry Cloth is made with cloth and looped pile, Nylon is made from two different monometers(*) diacid and diamine, Rayon is a Natural based material made from the cellulose of wood, pulp, or cotton, Cotton is  made of the cotton plant, and Satin is made from whites silk cocoon.

(*) monometers are small molecules that can chemical combine.

Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that cotton (brushed T-shirt cotton) will burn quicker than the other fabrics.

Experiment: The steps of my experiment were I bought the items for the project. I cut the each of the fabrics into 5x7 squares. I tested my hypothesis through a cycle of burning the fabrics 4 times each. I recorded the times of how long it took for them to burn. (All 4 times). The materials I used were, aluminum foil, digital camera, lighter, stop watch,4  5x7  Squares of Linen,4  5x7  Squares of Cotton (Brushed T-shirt cotton),4  5x7  Squares of Nylon.4  5x7  Squares of Satin,4  5x7  Squares of Rayon,4  5x7  Squares of  Broad Cloth, and 4  5x7  Terry Cloth.   

Analysis: While doing my experiment I observed  that the data I collected from my 5x7 in. square fabric pieces indicated that Broad Cloth was the fastest to burn, and Linen the slowest . The average  time Nylon took to burn was 2.03 minutes  (although Nylon was never fully consumed), Satin was 1.11 minute, Terry Cloth was 5.42 minutes, Cotton was 1.91 minute, Linen was 6.91 minutes, Broad Cloth was 0.67 seconds, and Rayon was 1.56 minute. These are the times for the 5x7 in. square pieces of fabric.

Discovery: In this experiment I  found out that most fabrics burn moderately fast, but nothing close to the ones that you might hear about in colonial stories with women who stand close to the fire and their dresses go up in flames in a snap. Most of the fabrics burned slowly. Therefore, I reject my hypothesis because I thought that the cotton (brushed t-shirt cotton ) will burn quicker that the other fabrics, but the one who burned quicker was broad cloth.

Bibliography:
http://youth.net/nsrc/sci.com
www.lapl.org
www.google.com
www.ask.com