14 July 2011 Revising the Procedures of Our Experiment (and Snowmobiling on The Greenland Ice Sheet!)

Have you figured out the mistake that I made with our tent experiment? I wish you all were here to help me out.

Well, after I finished the experiment yesterday, I wondered if making the tents inside the Tomato (in warm air) affected our results.

Here is the change I made for our second attempt with our experiment. I took the tents outside and opened one side so the cold air got into each tent. Then, I put them in the shade for 20 minutes with the one side kept open.

At 9:20 a.m. I put the tents in the sun and waited 1 ½ hours. I then opened up the tents and wrote down the temperatures inside each tent.

Here are the results:

Yellow Tent = 52 degrees Fahrenheit (or 11 degrees Celsius) Black Tent = 78 degrees Fahrenheit (or 25.5 degrees Celsius)

Wow, that was much different from yesterday. I decide to keep the tents outside for another 1 ½ hours. When I returned, the temperatures inside the tents were:

Yellow Tent= 45 degrees Fahrenheit (or 7 degrees Celsius) Black Tent = 65 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18 degrees Celsius)

Wow, those are interesting results. What do you think?

I don’t feel comfortable yet making any conclusions just yet. I wish I could repeat the experiment at the same exact time in the same exact weather conditions many more times before I make any conclusions.

Even though our models of the tents were pretty good, I think they could even be better. Each real Arctic Oven tent was sitting on a piece of plywood to help insulate it from the snow. Next time, I think I would like to put our models on plywood too. In addition, each real Arctic Oven tent has a second lining of fabric on the inside that is white, almost like a thick paper towel. I wonder if using an inside lining would make a difference.

Unfortunately, the wind has started to pick up. I should get these models inside before they slide across the flat ice sheet for hundreds of miles!

I’ll keep you posted and let you know if I get a chance to repeat our experiment again.

Before I forget, I wanted to let you know that Brandon, Hannah and I got a chance to ride on snowmobiles! We helped replace flags on bamboo poles that were a few miles outside of our camp. I think Hannah really liked this job. Watch this video of Hannah riding to the next flag. If you look closely, you will see me taking a picture of Hannah as she zooms by. Thank you, Brandon, for taking this video.

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Here is a picture of Brandon cruising by on his snowmobile.

And, just in case you were worried that I missed out on all the fun, here is a picture of me on my snowmobile.