Riveted by the prospect of watching ice melt, I crouched near the boxes and waited, like a blood thirsty cougar, ready to pounce! Except instead of being thirsty for blood, I was thirsty for water!

Six and a half hours later, at 7:15pm, the balloon box's water broke.

I decided to take a look at how things were going inside the boxes. My thermometer still read 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

There was a large block of ice in the aluminum foil box, but the inner cardboard was pretty soaked.

The Rice Crispy Treats box had a larger block of ice, but the inner cardboard was also wet. There was also water on the outside of the outer box.

The inner styrofoam box was also wet, but the ice block was still full-sized.

Cardboard had lots of ice left, Diapers had a lot, and the goose down feathers had barely melted at all. 

The pink balloons box also had a big chunk of ice, but it also had a problem. The lid wasn't sitting closed.

With the lid propped up a bit, hot air had been able to flow in, around the balloons and get to the ice. This kind of  heat loss through air movement is known as convection. I removed a few balloons, which allowed the top flaps to close properly. 

At 11:45pm, I strolled out for another check.

It was quiet.

All the boxes still had plenty of ice. 

Styrofoam and Down feathers were doing very, very well, preserving large blocks of ice.

The box with latex balloons had the least ice remaining. I wondered if it would last through the night.

Please continue reading page 4 of testing insulation. Page four is lacking any interesting photos, so just do your best.

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