Does Cotton wool delay heat loss???

Question

Does cotton wool work as a heat insulator? If it was placed in a pizza box as a inside layer, would it delay heat loss or lose heat even faster? If so, why? I really need help with this for a paper. Thx.

Answer 1

Packed cotton wool makes a good insulator (poor conductor), in that heat, trying to escape, has a very long Path to take around and in and out of the masses of fibres and the air between them.

Heat transfer rate depends upon the length of heat path, the conductivity of the material and the ΔT between the hot and cold.

The thicker the cotton wool and the more densely packed, the slower will be the heat loss from the pizza.

Answer 2

Generally the wool is a good insulator, they use it for AC duct insulation and for cold storage wall units because it is a good insulation material, in steel structure buildings also it is used as a heat insulator, there are so many application were the wool used as an insulator

Answer 3

It certainly does. I remember with fondness one of the first science experiments I did in school, measuring how quickly beakers of hot water cool down when wrapped in different materials, and cotton wool was the best insulator we tested. The fibres of the cotton wool trap pockets of air, and air is a good insulator. The trouble is, air is usually free to move around - as soon as it gets heated, it expands and rises, taking the heat away with it in a process called convection. By trapping the air in fibres it restricts its movements so convection can't occur, and heat is retained for longer. Of course, you'd want to make sure it's kept separate from the pizza inside the box - I don't fancy cotton fibres as a bonus topping!