What Kind of Fabric Burns the Quickest?

Tips for Fire Science Fair Projects

It is important to practice fire safety when working with any science fair project that involves fire. Fire safety includes being supervised by an adult,wearing appropriate safety gear, having a pail of water handy and having a fire extinguisher handy. You may want to conduct your fire experiments outside as well.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the burning rate of various types of cloth.

I became interested in this idea when I was camping with my friends. I wondered what would happen if my clothes caught on fire, which items would burn the least.

The information gained from this experiment could help people who were camping or worked near fires or flames to choose clothing that would not burn as easily.

HYPOTHESIS

My first hypothesis was that cotton would burn the most completely.

My second hypothesis was that cotton would burn the fastest.

I based my hypothesis on a 2001, 6th grade science project by Markus Nelson, “What Kind of Fabric Burns the Quickest?” He found that cotton burned the fastest.

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

MATERIALS

PROCEDURES

1. Wash and dry each type of cloth
2. Cut each cloth into 5 10x10 cm squares
3. Hang one square of cotton cloth above the lighter from test tube clamp on ring stand
4. Light candle
5. Start the stopwatch to record how long it takes the cloth to catch on fire
6. Time how long the cloth burns and record data
7. Cover cloth with 10 by 10 transparent grid to find how much of the cloth burned. Record data.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 four more times
9. Repeat steps 3-8 with wool cloth
10. Repeat steps 3-8 with silk cloth
11. Repeat steps 3-8 with linen cloth
12. Average results for each type of cloth

RESULTS

The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the burning rate of various types of cloth.

The results of the experiment were the Linen took an average of 7.62 seconds to ignite, the silk took an average of 12.07 seconds to ignite, the wool took an average of 12.81 seconds to ignite, and the cotton took an average of 19.07 seconds to ignite. Silk took an average of 4.08 seconds to extinguish, wool took an average of 15.23 seconds to extinguish, linen took an average of 53.90 seconds to extinguish, and cotton took an average of 57.19 seconds to extinguish. Silk had an average of 91.7 sq cm left unburned, wool had an average of 88.6 sq cm left unburned, linen had an average of 23.8 sq cm left unburned, and cotton had an average of 8.7 sq cm left unburned.

CONCLUSION

My first hypothesis was that cotton would burn the most completely. The results indicate that my first hypothesis should be accepted, because cotton had the smallest area unburned.

My second hypothesis was that cotton would burn the fastest. The results indicated that my second hypothesis should be rejected because linen burned the fastest.

After thinking about the results of this experiment, I wonder if the way the cloth is washed or the soap used would change the results of this experiment.

If I were to conduct this project again I would do more trials for each type of cloth and I would use more types of cloth.

EDU 7080 Detectolab Kit	EDU 8355 Super Chem Kit	EDU 8350 Super Chem Science Kit	Young Scientists Club Set 4
Ages 8 and up	Ages 10 and up	Ages 8 and up	Ages 9 - 12