Hand warmers have existed for many years. They were originally intended to be used for camping, but more and more often they are used in sports. When people's hands get cold, it affects their ability to perform at their highest ability, so to keep them warm, they use hand warmers. The average hand warmer increases 20 degrees celsius when activated, and it does so in a very quick manner. In addition, its volume is about 50 mL. The thing about hand warmers, is that the chemicals used in them have to be safe to touch, and usually, need to be environmentally friendly. Our challenge as a group was to make a hand warmer that met these requirements, and could possibly be bought and used by sports teams at San Marin.
While we were brainstorming all of our ideas, we decided that just simply making a hand warmer like everybody else was going to be boring. We wanted to do something a little bit different. As we talked, we observed that when people play sports, they don't get cold, rather, they heat up. So instead of making a hand warmer, we were going to make something that cooled an athlete off. The product that we came up with was a hat cooler.
It is essentially a lining that you can put in your hat, and when it is activated, the temperature drops 20 degrees celsius, rather than increase that amount. This choice for a project was going to give us a separating factor, and it was going to be a lot more fun and applicable than a hand warmer.
In order to achieve this goal, we did tests of trial and error, and we determined that the most effective way to do it would be to use 10 grams of ammonium nitrate, and 50 mL of water. The mixture of these two substances creates an endothermic reaction, which means it absorbs the heat around it, making its surroundings cooler.
In order to activate the hat cooler, one must pop the balloons filled with 50mL of water so that it mixes with the 5 grams of ammonium nitrate. After the balloons are popped, the user must line their hat with the bag in which the reaction is occurring. Then they can put it on their head and start cooling down right away.
During this project, I learned a lot about what it takes to create a product. It is a lot harder than it looks. There is a lot more planning involved than I had expected. I want to become an entrepreneur one day, so this has taught me a lot about launching a new product. I didn't know how hard it was going to be to find the perfect ratio of ammonium nitrate and water. It took a lot more trials than I anticipated. Also, trying to use materials and chemicals that wouldn't hurt anyone was challenging, because there are a lot of chemicals that aren't safe for people. I think if I could do this project again, I would have spent a little bit more time on the design with my group.
It is essentially a lining that you can put in your hat, and when it is activated, the temperature drops 20 degrees celsius, rather than increase that amount. This choice for a project was going to give us a separating factor, and it was going to be a lot more fun and applicable than a hand warmer.
In order to achieve this goal, we did tests of trial and error, and we determined that the most effective way to do it would be to use 10 grams of ammonium nitrate, and 50 mL of water. The mixture of these two substances creates an endothermic reaction, which means it absorbs the heat around it, making its surroundings cooler.
In order to activate the hat cooler, one must pop the balloons filled with 50mL of water so that it mixes with the 5 grams of ammonium nitrate. After the balloons are popped, the user must line their hat with the bag in which the reaction is occurring. Then they can put it on their head and start cooling down right away.
During this project, I learned a lot about what it takes to create a product. It is a lot harder than it looks. There is a lot more planning involved than I had expected. I want to become an entrepreneur one day, so this has taught me a lot about launching a new product. I didn't know how hard it was going to be to find the perfect ratio of ammonium nitrate and water. It took a lot more trials than I anticipated. Also, trying to use materials and chemicals that wouldn't hurt anyone was challenging, because there are a lot of chemicals that aren't safe for people. I think if I could do this project again, I would have spent a little bit more time on the design with my group.