school project - solar heating container?

Question

My son has to make a solar heating container to boil water for a 5th grade class project. We were thinking of using a metal tin and painting it with a matte black paint. should we also line the inside of a shoebox with aluminum foil and then put the black tin inside the box sort of like a solar oven? Let me know any suggestions you might have without "overdoing" it since it is a small class project. Thanks!!

Answer 1

I would think that boiling water would be a physical impossibility because of the heat required to boil water. Lets think through this: It takes several minutes of high heat to boil water on a stove, much less with solar energy.


I know that camping stores sell a portable water heater for hikers. If it were me, I would buy one of these, and look to see how they made it. Then, using items that would be reasonably used in a science project, make your water heater.

Your best shot for success: When I was in High School, a teacher took out a parabolic mirror and held a 2x4 at the focus point. After about a minute, the wood caught on fire. It was the coolest thing I ever saw and was what threw me into engineering.

If you could make a highly polished mirror out of a satellite dish, you may have a way to make your heater. I think it would be the only way to focus the energy that you need to get it to work (kind of like a huge magnifying glass only 100 x stronger)

good luck