System Boundaries
The water, air, and physical cup parts working together make up this scientific concept.
What is a system?
The main purpose of adding features like double walls or lids to a cup is to help maintain this.
What is the temperature of the liquid inside?
To make sure an experiment is a "fair test," a scientist must only change this many variables at a time.
What is one variable?
This "Lord of the Rings" in our solar system is a gas giant with giant hoops made mostly of ice and rock.
What is Saturn?
Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant and its heart is the size of a small car, making it the largest animal on Earth.
What is the blue whale?
Because it is outside the physical cup, the desk the cup sits on is classified as this.
What is outside the system?
If a cup holding hot cocoa is missing this feature, the drink will cool down much faster as heat escapes out the top.
What is a lid?
When looking at a data table, a cup with a smaller number in this specific column is better at maintaining its temperature.
What is the temperature change column?
This planet gets its rusty red color from iron oxide, which is the exact same stuff that makes old bikes rust on Earth.
What is Mars?
This eight-legged ocean creature has three hearts, blue blood, and can change its color and texture to instantly camouflage with rocks.
What is an octopus?
True or False: The air trapped inside the cup between the liquid and the lid is part of the system.
What is true?
Data shows that this specific wall design is much better at keeping drinks cold compared to a single layer of plastic.
What is a double wall?
If you are testing whether a straw affects temperature, both cups must have the exact same material, wall type, and lid to be considered this kind of test.
What is a fair test?
Because its gravity is only one-sixth as strong as Earth's, you could jump six times higher if you played basketball on this rocky satellite.
What is the moon?
When scientists first sent a stuffed specimen of this venomous, egg-laying Australian mammal back to England, people thought its duck-like bill was a prank glued onto a beaver.
What is a platypus?
If you place a cup in a refrigerator, the cold air circulating in the fridge is considered this in relation to the cup system.
What is outside the system?
When a single-walled cup warms up quickly, it is because heat from the room easily does this.
What is transfers through the thin wall into the system?
n 2006, scientists downgraded this icy world at the edge of our solar system from a full planet to a "dwarf planet."
What is Pluto?
Often called "water bears," these microscopic, eight-legged survivors can live through boiling water, solid ice, and even the vacuum of outer space.
What is a tardigrade?