Education:Science Projects:
How Do Polar Bbbears Stay Wwarm?
Under
their skin, polar bears have a layer of blubber
4 inches (10 centimeters) thick. Seals and whales have blubber, too.
But is that enough to keep them warm when the temperature is 30 degrees
BELOW zero (-34 degrees Celsius)? Try this and see!
What you need
• Two empty plastic margarine containers
• cold water
• ice cubes
• shortening (like Crisco, the white stuff your parents use to bake with)
• paper towels.
What you do
1. Fill the margarine cups with cold water and ice cubes.
2. Stick one of your fingers in each of the cups. How does that feel? How long can you keep your fingers in there before they get cold? Now imagine how a polar bear or seal would feel diving into the freezing Arctic ocean!
3. Make a ball of shortening and put one finger in the middle of it, making sure the finger is completely covered by the shortening.
4. Now place the covered finger in one of the cups of ice water, and the other finger that is not covered in the other cup.
What do you notice? Which finger do you want to take out of the cold water first? The shortening is like a polar bear's layer of blubber. So now do you think that blubber could help keep the bear warm?
