Handwarmer Challenge

By Parker, Madi, Ciara, and

Lindsey
Challenge
Our challenge is to create an effective, safe, and cheap
hand warmer that will provide heat in the cold months
for San Marin winter sports fans.
Our Hand Warmer Model
-Our model contains 3 bags

-The first bag contains 25 mL of water

-The bag of water is then placed inside another

bag that contains 10 g of CaCl2

-Then a final bag is placed around the water

and CaCl2
Materials
To build our prototype we used the following materials

-Ziploc bags

-25ml of distilled water

-10g of calcium chloride

Investigating Our Prototype
To make our final prototype we had to go through many critical design changes/processes.

-Where to put the water?

-Where to put the calcium chloride?

-How many bags we should use?

-What size the hand warmer should be?

-How much of each substance we use?

-How to keep the salt and water separate/how to pop the bags when needed?

-How to successfully seal the bags so they dont leak?

Budget
The total cost of 100 hand warmers will be

-Cost of calcium chloride: $5.90 for 500g(2)

-Cost of Ziploc snack bags: $8(2)

-Cost of water: $0.06 (250mL)

-Total cost: $ 0.21 for one, $21 for 100

-Selling price $1 per handwarmer

Calculations
Here is a picture of all of
our data and calculations
for the handwarmer
product, including the trials,
reaction, enthalpy,
calorimeter constant, etc.
How It Works
1. The water is sealed in the first bag with a little air in it.
2. The water bag then goes into the bag containing the calcium chloride with
no air.
3. These bags are then put into another bag.
4. When the two inner bags are popped, the calcium chloride and water mix
together. When the ionic solid dissolves, the cations and anions in the
ionic solid and hydrogen molecules in the water are broken. New bonds
between water molecules, cations, and anions are formed. More energy is
required to break these bonds than is released, and the overall process
absorbs energy as heat.
Data
Trial 1:

5 grams CaCl2 and 50 mL water

Stayed warm for one minute 15 seconds

Trial 2:

30 grams CaCl2 and 10 mL water

Stayed warm for 45 seconds

Trial 3:

10 grams CaCl2 and 25 mL water

Stayed warm for 2 minutes 30 seconds
Marketing
In order to advertise our hand warmer, we plan to print out flyers in order to
raise awareness to the school about them and their availability. We would also
try to have a morning announcement that talked about them and notified
students and staff. Finally, we would communicate with coaches to inform
their players and team families about the distribution of the hand warmers.
Why is this project important?
There are many reasons why this project is important not only to us students
but to the San Marin community. They.

-Helps us learn about endothermic and exothermic reactions

-Improves our problems solving skills when it comes to the product design
process

- Allows STEM Marin students to actively help solve real problems in the
community

-Raises school spirit (and money!) at sports events

Thanks for watching!
:)