[Old Smokey]

Hey all,

I'm new here, but I am definitely looking forward to asking you lots of questions. 

Basically I have been presented with the task of planning an investigation. There are no boundaries (within reason) to what I can do. It's got to be in the format of 'how does x affect y'.

I was thinking I could do something with thermite (mostly because thermite is just pure awesome) - as in, how does varying the amount of x when making thermite affect the heat of the thermite produced.

Essentially my question is - what could my independent variable be and how can I best set it up?

As I said, I want to look at heat so I guess I could make the thermite in a clay pot with a hole in it so the thermite could drop through into some water. I could then measure the change of heat of the water. Maybe that is not optimal though, since it would be difficult to make sure the same amount of thermite went through the hole each time, etc.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
C.

[Kyle1990]

the amount of thermite you use is your independent variable. The dependent variable is the heat realeased during the reaction. The more thermite you have, the more heat released, thus the amount of heat released depends on the amount of thermite.

[Old Smokey]

Thanks for your answer. 

[personnaobscura21]

whoa now i wouldnt go and look at that reaction without a welding lense
and your x variable is how finely atomized your alumminum and iron oxide are.
if u lessen one or the other from the optimum ratio it wont cool but instead the element u left more of wont react all the way