So, I’ve been messin’ around with this whole “thermal conductivity” thing with bricks. Yeah, sounds kinda boring, but it’s actually pretty interesting when you get into it. Basically, I wanted to see how well a brick can move heat around. Like, if you heat up one side, how quickly does the other side get warm?
I started with a simple idea, grab a brick, heat it up and record it.
First, I had to find a brick. Not just any brick, but a standard-issue, run-of-the-mill kinda brick. I got some from the local hardware store. Next, I needed a heat source. For this experiment, I used a hot plate, it’s important to keep the heat consistent. Then, how do you measure the temperature? I stuck a couple of those stick-on thermometers on each side of the brick. They’re not super precise, but good enough for this.
Here’s what I did:
- Put the brick on the hot plate.
- Turned the hot plate to a medium setting, and started a timer.
- Every 5 minutes, I wrote down the temperature on both sides of the brick.
- Kept doing this for about an hour, just to see how things changed over time.
What happened?
Well, as you’d expect, the side touching the hot plate heated up pretty fast. But the other side? It took a while to catch up. It was a slow and steady climb. I jotted down all the numbers, and it was clear that this brick wasn’t in any hurry to transfer that heat. I found the number is between 0.5 and 1.0 or something, whatever that means. After the tests, I cleaned up the mess, put away the tools, turned off the equipment, and took notes of the experiment.
So, what did I learn from all this? Bricks are pretty good at keeping the heat on one side, which is why they’re used to build houses and stuff. Keeps the inside temperature steady, you know? Not bad for a simple experiment, huh? It definitely gave me a new appreciation for the humble brick.
