Experiment 1: Linear Expansion

Abquez,J.M.T.a, Almiraez, A.a, Adiaton, A.D.R. a, Bongo, S.J. a Cabrera, R.M. b a. b. Group 1A, PHY12L (B1), A.Y. 2013 2014: Q1, Department of Physics, Mapa Institute of TechnologyIntramuros Faculty, Department of Physics, Mapa Institute of Technology Intramuros

Abstract: Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change in temperature.[4] Linear expansion, the phenomenon studied in this experiment, is one of the three types of thermal expansion brought about by temperature change. In this experiment, in order to accurately determine the change in temperature of the materials used, the resistance-temperature relationship of the materials was utilized. The two main objectives of the experiment were to determine the coefficient of linear expansion of aluminum and copper rods and to determine and examine the factors affecting the thermal expansion of objects. The results of the experiment gave the values for the coefficient of linear expansion of aluminum and copper as / and , respectively. However, when we compared the experimental coefficient of linear expansion of the aluminum and copper with their actual values there were big percentage errors of 19.71% and 19.28%. This might be due to some factors regarding the apparatus, the environment and the gathering of data itself. It was also found that aside from the coefficient of linear expansion of a material, the change in length is also dependent on the change in temperature.

1. Introduction
All materials change their size when subjected to a temperature change as long as the pressure is held constant. In the special case of solid materials, the pressure does not appreciably affect the size of an object, and so for solids, it usually not necessary to specify that the pressure be held constant. The coefficient of thermal expansion describes how the size of an object changes with a change in temperature. Specifically, it measures the fractional change in volume per degree change in temperature at a constant pressure. Look at electrical power lines on a hot summer day. They will sag more than on a cold winter day. If you look at many bridges, they have interlocking metal fingers forming an expansion joint, where the bridge joins the road. This is to accommodate thermal expansion. (One notable exception to this general rule is water. It usually undergoes a normal thermal expansion, but as it approaches its freezing point, it will expand instead of shrink.) As an object expands or contracts with a temperature change, its change in length depends on three quantities: the original length, the temperature change, and the thermal properties of the material composing the object.

Linear expansion, the phenomenon studied in this experiment, is one of the three types of thermal expansion brought about by temperature change. The other types are area and volume change. This is affected by the type of material, initial or original length of material and the change in temperature. From figure (1), notice that the heat applied caused the tube to elongate.

Figure 1: Linear Thermal Expansion

All substances expand or contract when their temperature changes, and the expansion or contraction always occurs in all directions. Substances that expand at the same rate in any direction are called isotropic. Unlike gases or liquids, solid materials tend to keep their shape. For solids, one might only be concerned with the change along a length, or over some area. Expansion coefficients are specially defined for these cases, and they are known as the linear and area expansion coefficients. However, they all come from the volume expansion coefficient, which explains how the substance expands in any direction. Some substances expand when cooled, such as freezing water, so they have negative thermal expansion coefficients. So in this experiment, we need to determine the coefficient of linear expansion of a metal rod. In this part we need to test two materials, copper metal tube and aluminum metal tube. We were also able to determine the factors that might affect the change in length in thermal expansion.

2. Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

A hot air balloon being inflated, a thermometer placed on boiling water and a piece of steel being exposed to the sun. Of the stated examples, the words heat and change in temperature would easily cross our minds. This is because these examples are actually related to Thermal Expansion which is defined as the change in volume of matter in response to the change in temperature. Most substances, when heated, undergo thermal expansion, which can then be classified into three categories: Linear Expansion (one-dimensional), Area Expansion (two-dimensional), and Volume Expansion (three-dimensional). In addition, when the change in temperature is less than 100C, the electrical resistance of a metal is proportional to the temperature. The experiment focuses on the Linear Expansion of a material and uses the concept of the electrical resistance of the metal in obtaining the coefficient of linear expansion.

On the experiment, we will determine the coefficient of linear expansion of a given metal rod by understanding the concepts of Linear Expansion. To begin with,the metal rod has an initial length at an initial temperature , when there is a change in temperature, increase in particular, the metal rod increases in length with the increase in temperature which can be observed on the following figure:

Figure 2: The expansion of a rod from to

to

when the temperature changes from

From the figure, the change of length is the difference of the final length the initial length , thus:

and (1)

Similarly, the change in length is proportional to the change in temperature , the initial length of the rod and the coefficient of linear expansion which differs depending on the material. With this relationship, we end up with the equation: (2) Manipulating the second equation to obtain the formula of the coefficient of linear expansion , the equation now becomes: (3) Combining the second equation with the first equation and applying little algebra, we obtain the formula of the final length of a body: (5) Possible outcome would be that the coefficient of linear expansion would be very small in value since the change in length will not be visible to the naked eye and the change in length would depend on the length of the material and the change in temperature as observed on Equation 2.

3. Materials and Methods

In able to obtain the objectives we must execute it by testing it by doing an experiment, and these are the materials that we used.

Figure 3: The materials used in the experiment; (a) aluminum metal tube, (b) copper metal tube, (c) digital multi-tester, (d) meter stick, (e) expansion base with built-in gauge and thermistor, (f) steam generator, (g) rubber tubing, and (h) foam insulator. First, we measured the initial lengths of both copper and aluminium tubes starting from the inner edge of the stainless steel pin to the inner edge if the angle bracket at the end of the tube then recorded the measured lengths under the initial length,

Then we turn on the steam generator because it would take time to produce the steam that we needed to perform the experiment.

Figure 4: Measuring the initial length of the rod Then we mounted the aluminium tube in the expansion base, making sure that the stainless steel pin on the tube fits into the slot of the slotted mounting block and the bracket on the tube presses against the spring arm of the dial gauge. We then determined the resistance of the thermistor at room temperature and record it as and determined its equivalent temperature from the table located also at the base of the expansion base and record it as this will served as the initial temperature of the tube. We then set the dial gauge reading to zero. We then attached the rubber tube from the steam generator to the end of the aluminium tube farthest from the dial gauge then turn on the steam generator to start the experiment.

Figure 5: Getting the room temperature. We then attached the thermistor lug to the threaded hole in the middle of the tube using a thumb screw. The lug should be aligned along the tube to ensure maximum contact between the lug and the tube. Then we plugged the leads of the multi tester into the banana plug connector of the thermistor located at the centre of the expansion base.

We also raised one end of the expansion apparatus and placed a rag to catch the draining water on the other end during the process so that condensed water shall drain out. We observed the dial gauge that includes one rotation is equal to 1 mm and determined the increase in length and simultaneously get the resistance of the thermistor then find the equivalent final temperature of the aluminium tube .

We then determined the change in temperature by getting the difference in the and . We then compute for the experimental coefficient of linear expansion using the equation and determined the percentage error by referring to table 1 from the laboratory manual for the actual coefficient linear of expansion of the material used. We then repeat the whole said procedure using a different material of the tube, in our case; we used Copper Tube in our second trial. Figure 6: Obtaining the change in temperature. In order to perform the experiment, an aluminum tube, a copper metal tube, one digital multi-tester, a set of expansion base with built-in gauge and thermistor, a foam insulator, a rubber tubing, and a steam generator were needed Fig. (6).

4. Results and Discussion

After the initial lengths of the two tubes, aluminum and copper, were measured with the meter stick to both be 702mm, the experiment was performed first for copper and then for aluminum. The data collected and the computed results are shown in the following table. Table 1: Data obtained from experiment including some calculations. Trial/Type of Tube Trial 1. Aluminum Tube Trial 2. Copper Tube 702 mm 702 mm Initial Length of Tube, Initial Resistance of Thermistor 102 300 106 800 at Room Temperature,

Initial Temperature, Change in Length of Tube, Resistance of Thermistor at Final Temperature, Final Temperature of Tube, Change in Temperature of the Tube, ( ) Experimental Coefficient of Linear Expansion, Actual Coefficient of Linear Expansion, Percentage of Error

25 1.1 mm 10 800 80 55 / / 19.71 %

23 0.83 mm 10 200 82 59

19.28 %

The resulting experimental coefficient of linear expansion of the aluminum rod, / , was found to be greater than that of the copper rod, which is consistent with the comparison of the actual coefficients of linear expansion of the two materials: . However, when comparing the experimental coefficient of linear expansion of one material, say aluminum, with its actual value, there is a big percentage error of 19.71% (greater than 15%). For copper, the percentage error is also big, 19.28%. This might be due to some factors regarding the apparatus, the environment and the gathering of data itself. First, the reading from the dial gauge kept changing when the apparatus was raised at one end to allow the water in the rods that condensed to drip through the other end so as to lessen its possible effect on the temperature of the rod. Secondly, we were working in an airconditioned room and this could have caused some effect on the temperature of the rod. Third, the temperature might not be constant for the entire tube. Lastly, the measuring of length by a meter stick and the change of length by the dial gauge could not be said to be 100% accurate and this might have affected the data.

5. Conclusion and Recommendation

The objectives of this experiment were to determine the coefficient of the linear expansion of two metal rods and to determine the factors that could affect said coefficient. The two rods specifically, the aluminum rod and copper rod, were both examined in this experiment. Each material has an accepted value for coefficient of linear expansion which we compared to the experimental coefficients of linear expansion that we were able to calculate from results of our experiment. A different coefficient of linear expansion means that the change in length of a material will most definitely vary, depending on the material. The change in length of a material, we found, is also dependent on the change in temperature. In the table provided we can state that aluminum has a higher coefficient of linear expansion than copper.

The experiment enabled us to compute for the experimental coefficient of linear expansion of the two rods and shows how temperature affects the expansion of the objects. Therefore, we can conclude that the change in the length of an object is directly proportional to the change in temperature. As temperature of the material increases the expansion of its length also increases.

References
[1] [2] Thermal Expansion, wikipedia.org, extracted: July 29, 2013 Lab Manual, General Physics 3, Department of Physics, Mapa Institute of Technology [3] Thermal Expansion-Real Life Applications, scienceclarified.com, extracted: July 30, 2013 [4] Paul A., Tipler; Gene Mosca (2008). Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Volume 1 (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. pp. 666670. ISBN 1-4292-0132-0.

Appendix A: Applications
The behavior of gasoline pumped on a hot day provides an example of liquid thermal expansion in response to an increase in temperature. When it comes from its underground tank at the gas station, the gasoline is relatively cool, but it will warm when sitting in the tank of an already warm car. If the car's tank is filled and the vehicle left to sit in the sunin other words, if the car is not driven after the tank is filledthe gasoline might very well expand in volume faster than the fuel tank, overflowing onto the pavement. Another example of thermal expansion on the part of a liquid can be found inside the car's radiator. If the radiator is "topped off" with coolant on a cold day, an increase in temperature could very well cause the coolant to expand until it overflows. In the past, this produced a problem for car owners, because car engines released the excess volume of coolant onto the ground, requiring periodic replacement of the fluid. Later-model cars, however, have an overflow container to collect fluid released as a result of volume expansion. As the engine cools down again, the container returns the excess fluid to the radiator, thus, "recycling" it. This means that newer cars are much less prone to overheating as older cars. Combined with improvements in radiator fluid mixtures, which act as antifreeze in cold weather and coolant in hot, the "recycling" process has led to a significant decrease in breakdowns related to thermal expansion. Many solids are made up of crystals, regular shapes composed of molecules joined to one another as though on springs. A spring that is pulled back, just before it is released, is an example of potential energy, or the energy that an object possesses by virtue of its position. For a crystalline solid at room temperature, potential energy and spacing between molecules are relatively low. But as temperature increases and the solid expand, the space between molecules increasesas does the potential energy in the solid. In fact, the responses of solids to changes in temperature tend to be more dramatic, at least when they are seen in daily life, than are the behaviors of liquids or gases under conditions of thermal expansion. Of course, solids actually respond less to changes in temperature than fluids do; but since they are solids, people expect their contours to be immovable. Thus, when the volume of a solid changes as a result of an increase in thermal energy, the outcome is more noteworthy. An everyday example of thermal expansion can be seen in the kitchen. Almost everyone has had the experience of trying unsuccessfully to budge a tight metal lid on a glass container, and after running hot water over the lid, finding that it gives way and opens at last. The reason for this is that the high-temperature water causes the metal lid to expand. On the other hand, glassas noted earlierhas a low coefficient of expansion. Otherwise, it would expand with the lid, which would defeat the purpose of running hot water over it. If glass jars had a high coefficient of expansion, they would deform when exposed to relatively low levels of heat. Another example of thermal expansion in a solid is the sagging of electrical power lines on a hot day. This happens because heat causes them to expand, and, thus, there is a greater length of power line extending from pole to pole than under lower

temperature conditions. It is highly unlikely that the heat of summer could be so great as to pose a danger of power lines breaking; on the other hand, heat can create a serious threat with regard to larger structures. Most large bridges include expansion joints, which look rather like two metal combs facing one another, their teeth interlocking. When heat causes the bridge to expand during the sunlight hours of a hot day, the two sides of the expansion joint move toward one another; then, as the bridge cools down after dark, they begin gradually to retract. Thus the bridge has a built-in safety zone; otherwise, it would have no room for expansion or contraction in response to temperature changes. As for the use of the comb shape, this staggers the gap between the two sides of the expansion joint, thus minimizing the bump motorists experience as they drive over it. Expansion joints of a different design can also be found in highways, and on "highways" of rail. Thermal expansion is a particularly serious problem where railroad tracks are concerned, since the tracks on which the trains run are made of steel. Steel, as noted earlier, expands by a factor of 12 parts in 1 million for every Celsius degree change in temperature, and while this may not seem like much, it can create a serious problem under conditions of high temperature. Most tracks are built from pieces of steel supported by wooden ties, and laid with a gap between the ends. This gap provides a buffer for thermal expansion, but there is another matter to consider: the tracks are bolted to the wooden ties, and if the steel expands too much, it could pull out these bolts. Hence, instead of being placed in a hole the same size as the bolt, the bolts are fitted in slots, so that there is room for the track to slide in place slowly when the temperature rises. Such an arrangement works agreeably for trains that run at ordinary speeds: their wheels merely make a noise as they pass over the gaps, which are rarely wider than 0.5 in (0.013 m). A high-speed train, however, cannot travel over irregular track; therefore, tracks for high-speed trains are laid under conditions of relatively high tension. Hydraulic equipment is used to pull sections of the track taut; then, once the track is secured in place along the cross ties, the tension is distributed down the length of the track.

Appendix B: Answers to Guide Questions

1. In the performance of the experiment, cite the possible sources of errors and its effect in the computed values. What are the recommendations then to minimize such error? In performing the experiment, the results in the coefficient of linear expansion may be affected by the environment and the inaccurate measurement of the quantities. The environments temperature is one of the factors being used to determine the coefficient of linear expansion. In the laboratory room where the experiment has taken place the temperature was affected by the air-conditioning system. In performing such experiment, it is recommended to choose a controlled environment

to prevent errors in the computed values. Another source of error is the use of interpolation in relating temperature readings to resistance. Inaccuracy on the results will occur if the highest expansion and lowest resistance was not read carefully. There other systems that can be used to read the resistance more accurately. 2. Would the result be different if the condensed water was not drained from the expansion tube? Yes, the result would be affected if the condensed water was not drained from the tube. Steam was used by the rod to acquire the amount of heat needed for them to expand. Since the condensed water inside the rod was not drained therefore, the opposite heat that both rods needed to expand will not be obtained. 3. From the result of the experiment, compute for the coefficient of expansion for the area and volume of the metals. AREA: A = 2 AoT

Aluminum metal tube T= Tf T0 = 80 oC - 25 oC = 55 Co Ao = Lo2 = (702)2 = 492 804 mm2 A = L 2 = (1.10)2 = 1.21 mm2 = A /2AoT = 1.21 / 2(492 804) (55) = 2.23x 10-8 / Co

Copper metal tube T= Tf T0 = 82 oC - 23 oC = 59 Co Ao = Lo2 = (702)2 = 492 804 mm2 A = L 2 VOLUME: Aluminum metal tube T= Tf T0 = 80 oC - 25 oC = 55 Co = (0.83)2 = 0.6889 mm2 = A /2AoT = 0.6889 /2 (492 804) (59) = 1.18x 10-8 / Co

= 1.331 mm3 Vo = = (702)3 = 3.46x 108 mm3 V = L 3 = (1.10)3 Copper metal tube T= Tf T0 = 82 oC - 23 oC = 59 Co Vo = Lo3 = (702)3 = 3.46x 108 mm3 V = L 3 = (0.83)3 = 0.57 mm3 = V/VoT = 0.57 / (3.46x108) (59) = 2.80x 10-11 / Co Lo3 = V/VoT = 1.331 / (3.46x108) (55) = 6.99x 10-11 / Co

Appendix C: Answers to Problems

1. On a hot day where the temperature is 32 , the distance between two lamp posts on the road is 30m as measured by a metal tape whose coefficient of linear expansion is hypothetically / . If the tape gives its correct reading at 20 , what is the actual distance between the lamp posts? / = x = 29.982m

2. An aluminum rod and a copper rod have the same length of 100cm at 5 . At what temperatures would one of the rods be 0.5mm longer than the other? Which rod is longer at such temperature? Aluminum:

Copper:

Aluminum would generally be longer than copper at certain temperatures since aluminum has a higher coefficient of linear expansion which is proportional to the change in length.

Appendix D: Actual Data Sheet