Thermal Insulators

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
Which would keep water heated to 100 degrees Celcius warmest longest? 1. Polyester Quilting Fill 2. Raw Wool 3. Raw Angora Rabbit Hair 4. Flannel 5. The hood of a down coat thank you
- Meredith (age 16)
Hidden Valley High School, Roanoke, VA
A:
There’s no way to answer that without knowing a bit about how thick the layers would be, or how much they would weigh, etc. (We’re not claiming we would know the answer even if we had that sort of information.) Once you decide on how to make a fair comparison for your purposes, say by using the same weight of each type of insulation, or maybe the same thickness, it should be fairly easy to do the experiment, at least if you can get the materials. I’m not sure how easy it is to find raw angora rabbit hair, or even quite what that means.

Mike W.

(published on 10/22/2007)