EXPERIMENT 301: Linear Expansion

Analysis

 One probable source of error is the room temperature due to the positioning of the equipments
and the working area to be worked on.
 Another error source is the temperature of the tubes are not consistent due to the repetition of
procedures.
 One possible source of error is gauge measurement because when the gauge stopped moving,
that is the time to record the expansion. Wrong gauge measurement will produce error.
 Also measuring the tubes using the meter stick could cause error especially when the material
you’re measuring is not straight or is not placed in a flat surface. You could also be wrong in
reading the measurements.
 Thermal expansion is the general increase in the volume of a material as the temperature
increases.
 In a solid or liquid, there is a dynamic balance between the cohesive forces holding
the atoms or molecules together and the conditions created by temperature; higher temperatures
imply greater distance between atoms.
 Different materials have different bonding forces and therefore different expansion coefficients.
 The steam from the steam generator flows through the foam insulator then passes inside the tube
and supplies heat and that causes the expansion of the tube as stated in the concept of thermal
expansion.

Conclusion

In the of start the experiment, we measured the aluminum tube to get its initial length then
we measure the resistance of the metal using the thermistor and attached it to the metal tube. The
thermistor will determine the resistance of the metal tube. After recording the resistance of the
metal tube, we set the dial gauge reading to zero and wait until the water in the steam generator
boil and produce steam. The rubber tube will let the steam flow into the other side of the
thermistor and after some time, the resistance will decrease. We did the same procedures for the
copper tube. If the change in temperature is less than 100°C, the change in length, is found to be
proportional to the change in temperature and the initial length of the rod is a constant known as
the coefficient of linear expansion.

Linear expansion is the change in length due to change in temperature. In the experiment,
we are to determine the coefficient of linear expansion of metal tube namely aluminum and
copper, and to determine the factors affecting the change in length in thermal expansion of these
metals.
.
The results we got for the initial length is 700 mm for both the aluminum and copper
tubes. The initial resistance of thermistor at room temperature is 13.6 ohms for aluminum, and
11.6 ohms for copper. After the heating, we measured the final lengths of the tubes and by using
the equations given above, we obtained the change in length of the tubes to be 1.22 mm for
aluminum, and 0.9 mm for copper.

In the field of manufacturing, fuel is an example of what things deals with thermal expansion,
differences in the thermal expansion of materials can lead to interesting effects at the gas station. One
example is the dripping of gasoline from a freshly filled tank on a hot day. Gasoline starts out at the
temperature of the ground under the gas station, which is cooler than the air temperature above. The
gasoline cools the steel tank when it is filled. Both gasoline and steel tank expand as they warm to air
temperature, but gasoline expands much more than steel, and so it may overflow. This difference in
expansion can also cause problems when interpreting the gasoline gauge. The actual amount (mass) of
gasoline left in the tank when the gauge hits “empty” is a lot less in the summer than in the winter. The
gasoline has the same volume as it does in the winter when the “add fuel” light goes on, but because the
gasoline has expanded, there is less mass.