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DeterminingtheYoung'sModulusofSteel

SoniaBaci SchoolofPhysicsandAstronomy TheUniversityofManchester FirstYearLaboratoryReport Oct2009

Abstract: Young'smodulusforsteelwasdeterminedbyusingasteelwirehungtoabeam attachedtothelaboratoryceiling.Aseriesofweightswithincreasingmasswere attachedtothewire,causingittostretchdownwards.Thefinalresultis: 2.090.03 10 11 N / m 2 .Theaccuracyislimitedbythemeasurementsofthe diameterandlengthofthewire.

Introduction: Young'smodulus(E)isameasureofthestiffnessofanelasticmaterial.Itisalso knownastheYoungmodulus,modulusofelasticityorelasticmodulus.Itisdefinedas theratiooftheuniaxialstressovertheuniaxialstrainintherangeofstressinwhich Hooke'sLaw( L=


F L whereListhelengthoftherodandAisthecross EA

sectionalareaoftherodthatistensionedbyaforceF)holds.Thiscanbeexperimentally determinedbyhangingdifferentweightstotherod. Descriptionoftheexperiment: TodeterminetheYoung'sModulusforsteel,weuseasteelwireoflength1mand adiameterof0.30mmwithanuncertaintyof0.005mm.Wehangthewirebyabeam attachedtotheceilingofthelaboratoryandthenattachtothewireaseriesofweights. Eachtime,thedistancefromthefloortotheweightismeasured. Dataobtainedinthe measurementofYoung's Modulus Mas s (kg) 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 Distance(mm)

9.70 9.26 8.96 8.64 8.38 8.00 7.62 7.36 7.04 6.60 6.00 5.22

Whenaloadof6.5kgwasattached,itbrokethewire. First,wecalculatethelinearfittocheckifthereareanyincompatibledata. <w><wxy><wx><wy> Usingtheformulas m= and <w><w x 2 ><wx><wx> <wy><w x 2 ><wxy><wx> c= weobtaintheequationforthelinearfit, 2 <w><w x ><wx><wx> y=mx+c,whereyisthedistanceandxisthemassoftheload.

2
Plot 2: mass vs. distance 11 data 2 linear

10

9 Distance(mm)

Wenoticethatthelasttwo datadonotfittoourline,which meanstheyneedtobeexcluded fromthemeasurementsusedto calculatetheYoung'smodulus.

3 Mass(kg)

6 Plot3 mass vs. distance 10 9.5 9 data 2 linear

distance(mm)

Thefinalresultfortheslopeandthe interceptism=0.665andc=9.985

8.5 8 7.5 7 6.5 6 5.5 0 1 2 3 mass(kg) 4 5 6

Toquantifyhowgoodisthefit,Chisquared X 2 iscalculatedusingthenext

formula: X = i 1 i
2

Chisquared X 2 fordifferentnumberofmeasurements Numberofmeasurements 10 9 Chisquared X 2 15.359 13.153

8 3

11.706

Onlythelastvalueforchisquarediscompatiblewiththeruleofthumb, 2 0.5 X / v2 ,where v=N p ;Nisthenumberofmeasurementswhilepisthe numberofparameters(inthiscase,p=2). Young'smodulus: First,weneedtodetermine L usingthefollowingmethod:


m 1g=k L 1 ; m2g=k L 2
F=k L

k=

Wecannowcalculatetheconstantk,usingthefirsttwodataofthefirsttableand knowingthat L1 L 2 =d 1d 2 where d 1 and d 2 arethedistancescalculatedfrom m g thefloortotheweights.Therefore, k =11.136 N / m and Li = i k ThedateusedtodetermineYoung'smodulusislistedinthetablebelow: Mass (kg) 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
L (m)

gm1 m2 L 1 L 2

0.000285 0.000725 0.001025 0.001345 0.001605 0.001985 0.002365 0.002625 0.002945 0.003385

L=m 'M c ' ,wherem'andc'aretheslopeandinterceptofthelinearfit,M

representsthemass.

Also, L=FL / AE whichcanbewrittenas L=

gL m AE

=> m ' =gL / AE => E=gL /m ' A m'iscalculatedusingthesameformulaasforthepreviouslinearfitandweobtain m'=0.00067,therefore E=2.09 10 11 Fortheuncertaintywecalculatetheuncertaintyoftheslope 1 1 N 2 2 andtocalculatetheuncertaintyforEweusetheformulaof m' = 2 < x ><x><x>

thepropagationoferrorswithmultipleparameters:

E =E 2[ A / A2 m /' m' 2 ]
Theresultoftheuncertaintyis E =0.0310 11 N / m2 Finalresult: E=2.090.03 1011 N / m 2

References: www.wikipedia.org MATLAB,Version7

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