Try building your own wall using the objects provided. The conductor has ten times the conductivity of the insulator. You can reshape them by clicking on them and dragging the small yellow rectangles. Make sure that the pieces touch each other and bridge all the way from the heater on the left to the object to be heated on the right.

You can build different walls by:

  • moving the boxes around and changing their width and length (use your mouse to do this);
  • copying and then pasting a box to create another one with the same properties (right-click, or control-click on the Mac, on an object to do this. You can then move and resize the new object.);
  • making a sandwich of several layers in series;
  • making parallel connectors with different conductivities.

(For instance, imagine that the wall consists of insulation with an occasional metal stud that forms a bridge through the insulation between the inside and outside.)

You can place the extra thermometers anywhere you like if you want to measure the temperatures inside the wall.

Build at least two different walls in the middle space and compare their rates of heat flow. You can compare two walls by turning on the graph, running the model for a minute, and noting the temperature of the right-hand object.

For Windows users: Take a screenshot of your wall using the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (you may hold down the Ctrl key), paste into the Paint program and save it as an image file in your folder.

Then answer the questions in your workbook.



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