Sports Science

Using anhydrous copper sulfate and water
make a heat-pack

Using the results form the previous experiment estimate the amount of water and anhydrous copper sulfate needed to give a comfortable 40o C temperature.

Fill a small resealable bag with the volume of water you have calculated and seal the bag. The size of the bag is not critical and really depends on how big you wish the heat-pack to be.
Place fine saw dust in a bigger resealable bag. Finely crush the amount of anhydrous copper sulfate required and mix evenly amongst the saw dust.

Now, place the water bag inside the bigger bag containing the mixture of saw dust and anhydrous copper sulfate and seal the big bag.

When we are ready, rupture the internal bag of water by applying pressure to the larger bag. Note the temperature increase of the heat pack.

Is this effective as a heat pack?
The temperature of the contents may increase to a point where the plastic bags may melt. Be careful and mindful of this fact. A suggestion is to use oven bags as the external bag. However, if you select the amount of reactants carefully this will not be a problem.