Name:

. ...............................................................................................


ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

Practical Course: Thermal Expansion

I. Objectives

Observing the linear thermal expansion of aluminum and iron.

Estimating and comparing the expansion coefficients of the two materials.

Figure 1: Experimental setup for determining the thermal expansion of solids.

II. Theory
The length L of a solid body is linearly dependent on its temperature t:

Equation1: = ! 1 +

0: length at 0C, t temperature in C The linear expansion coefficient is determined

by the material of the solid body. In this experiment, measurements of thermal
expansion are conducted on thin metal tubes through which steam is channeled. From
the change in length L between room temperature t1 and steam temperature t2 and
the rod length L1, we can calculate with sufficient accuracy:

!! !
Equation 2: = !!
!
! !!!

The change in length is indicated by a rotating pointer.

Dr. Hussein Sabbah

 Name:
. ...............................................................................................


ID no: ............................... Class and Section: ...............................

III. Procedure and Report
During the experiment hot steam is emitted from the metal tube. Hot condensed water
can also continue to run out of the tube after the end of the experiment. Danger of
scalding!

1. Determine the room temperature and write this down.

2. Clamp the Al tube on the left side firmly and correct the zero position of the
pointer where necessary.
3. Measure the length of the tube, i.e. the distance from the clamping point to the
lateral hole for the pointer, using a tape measure.
4. Turn on the hot plate to boil the water.
5. Keep boiling the water until the pointer no longer moves.
6. Find the change in length from the pointer deflection.
7. Turn off and allow your apparatus to cool.
8. Replace the Al tube with the Fe tube, refill the flask with water and correct the
zero position of the pointer.
9. Repeat your measurement with the Fe tube and write down the tube length L1 and
the change in length .
10. Compute the and find the coefficient of linear expansion of each metal.
11. Compare these with the literature values given in the data table, by computing
the percent errors.

Data Table
Type of road L t1 t2 (measured) (literature)

Dr. Hussein Sabbah