MAPUA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
Experiment # 301

LINEAR EXPANSION
ENRIQUEZ,LOUISGOSPEL F.
CE-3
PHY12L / B3
2010107031

GROUP # 2

OP

JULY -22- 2013

Date of Performance
JULY -29- 2013
Date of Submission
Engr. Mervin E. Albalate
Instructor

C
PGR
Late

GRAD
E

ANALYSIS
Almost all materials when being heated expands in length, in area and
in volume. In this experiment though all linear, area, and volume expansion
takes place at the same time we are tasked to just observe the linear
expansion of an object which in our case is a copper and aluminum rod. The
rod of aluminum and copper has an initial length of 70.5 centimeter or 705
millimeter while the initial temperature of aluminum rod is 25.89degrees
Celsius and for copper rod is 24.90degrees Celsius. What I observed about
this data is that though they have the same length and almost the same
temperature they differ in resistance, the aluminum rod has 99,500 ohms
while for the copper rod it has a resistance of 95000 ohms. One more thing I
noticed is that the bigger the resistance of the thermistor the lower the
temperature conversion gives. Well I guess the colder the temperature the
higher the electrical current can an object resist.

By this observation about the resistance of the aluminum and copper tube or
rod, I noticed that since the resistance of the thermistor is what we used to
determine the temperature of the two objects the higher the resistance
capability of the object the smaller it will expand. Aluminum tube with
99,500 ohms of resistance can expand to the preset change of length of 0.60
millimeter while copper tube with 95,500 ohms of resistance can expand to
the preset delta L of 0.60 millimeter. Since the equation for computing the
linear expansion is equal to the product of coefficient of linear expansion,
original length of the object and change of temperature of the object, it is
now clear that as the temperature gets higher so as the expansion. The
resistance of the thermistor when heated up the aluminum tube is 24,900
ohms while on the copper tube is 17,070 ohms. The two objects have the
same size and almost the temperature but when heated up, their final
temperature varies. The aluminum heated up to 57.50 degrees Celsius
having a change of temperature of 31.61 Celsius degrees while the copper
heated up to 67.60 degrees Celsius having a change of temperature of 42.7
Celsius degrees. What makes them have different results is definitely their
composition, aluminum has coefficient of linear expansion of
Celsius degrees while copper has

Celsius degrees making the

aluminum more susceptible to expansion and copper lesser susceptible to

expansion than the aluminum. We can understand linear expansion
qualitatively on a molecular basis. Picture the interatomic forces in a solid as
spring. When the temperature increases, the energy and amplitude of the
vibration also increase. As a result, when the amplitude of vibration
increases, the average distance between atoms also increases. As the atoms
get farther apart, every dimension increases.

(a)We can model atoms in a solid as being held together by springs that
are easier to stretch than to compress. (b) A graph of the spring potential
energy versus distance x between neighboring atoms is not symmetrical. As
the energy increases and the atoms oscillate with greater amplitude, the
average distance increases.

CONCLUSION
Clearly, linear expansion is being affected by the temperature, size of
the object and most importantly is the composition of the object.
Temperature affects the expansion because as I have mentioned on the
analysis part, when the temperature increases, the energy and amplitude of
the vibration also increase. As a result, when the amplitude of vibration
increases, the average distance between atoms also increases. As the atoms
get farther apart, every dimension increases. Temperature serves as the
catalyst for an object to undergo expansion. Initial temperature is something
that indicates how much more heat should be gained for an expansion to
happen, if the objects temperature is lower than the normal temperature it
should have then more heat is needed and vice-versa. Initial temperature is
being affected by its surroundings or environment. Like in our situation, we
do our experiment in an air-conditioned place which makes the object a little
bit off to the actual result that it should have.
Size and composition of the object is somewhat mutual in the aspect
of affecting the expansion of the material. Size can be compared to a life
gauge in an arcade game, the bigger and the longer the object the harder and
the longer it will take to expand because heat which is the reason why an
object expand needs to be distributed to all area of the object to heat up and
expand. Composition of the object becomes related to size in manner that it
also helps the object to be a little bit resistant to expansion. So I conclude
that all materials experiences expansion whenever heat or change of
temperature occurs and the amount of expansion depends on the initial state
and dimension of the object.