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ABSTRACT This Experiment is done to see the effects of high temperature on aluminum and a copper rod.

The purpose of this experiment is to determine the experimental value of the coefficient of linear expansion on the two rods and compare it to its actual value, and to determine the factors that affect the length in the thermal expansion. The study was done by finding the initial length and resistance of the room. The steam generator then generated heat to the rods causing their temperature to rise. The length of the tube expands and the change in length was determined by the expansion apparatus. Also, the final resistance is determined. Based from the data gathered, the experimental value of the coefficient of linear expansion was different from the actual value since we are doing the experiment in a cold room; the percentage of error is also expected to be high since the boiling point was not reached. In conclusion, the length of the two rods expanded but with very small change of length. INTRODUCTION Whenever a change of temperature occurs on a certain solid, liquid or gas, the dimension of the matter will change. The expansion or contraction is caused by the high temperature. When there is one-dimensional change in an object, it is called Linear Expansion. If the change is twodimensional it is called area expansion. When the change is three-dimensional, it is called volume expansion. The experiments purpose is to determine the coefficient of linear expansion and to determine factors that affect the length of the rods. Since it is easier to compute compared to area or volume expansion. Throughout the experiment, it is observed that there are different values for the coefficient of linear expansion for different types of metals. Determination of the coefficient of linear expansion of aluminum and copper is done in the experiment. Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change in temperature. When a substance is heated, its particles begin moving more and thus usually maintain a greater average separation. Materials which contract with increasing temperature are rare; this effect is limited in size, and only occurs within limited temperature ranges. The degree of expansion divided by the change in temperature is called the material's coefficient of thermal expansion and generally varies with temperature. The coefficient of linear expansion is a constant that governs the degree to which the length of a solid will change as a result of an alteration in temperature for any given substance, the coefficient of linear expansion is typically a number expressed in terms of 105/C. In other words, the value of a particular solid's linear expansion coefficient is multiplied by 0.00001 per C. (The C in the denominator, shown in the equation below, simply "drops out" when the coefficient of linear expansion is multiplied by the change in temperature.) Most substances expand when heated through a normal temperature range. The change in length ( L) when a solid is heated is proportional to the initial length (Lo) and to the change in temperature ( T), or (eqn. 1) The constant is called the average coefficient of linear expansion, and is defined as the fractional change in length for each degree change in temperature. The value of the coefficient of linear expansion depends on the material of which the solid is made. To determine the value of for different materials, which is the purpose of this investigation, the equation can be solved for the coefficient , (eqn. 2) Where Lo is the initial length, L is the change in length that results from an increase in Temperature and T is the change in temperature in degrees Celsius. Note that the average coefficient of linear expansion has units of (C)1. The coefficient of linear expansion also depends on the temperature of the environment. If the experiment is done in a cool environment, the boiling point of 100C will not be obtained and will cause discrepancies on the value of the coefficient of linear expansion.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Figure 3-The rubber tubing was placed at the hole of the steam generator.

Figure 1- The materials used in the experiment.

In conducting the experiment, the following materials were used: (see figure 1) A set of expansion apparatus, steam generator, rubber tubing, copper and aluminum rod, meter stick and a digital multi-tester.

We aligned the dial gauge to zero point on the scale with the indicator needle. The steam generator was half-filled with water and heated to boil. When the steam came out of the hole, the rubber tubing was placed on the hole of the steam generator and to the end of the rod (see figure 3). The dial gauge started to rotate and when it stopped, we recorded the change in length of the rod (see figure 4).

Figure 4-The dial gauge was read and the change in length was determined. Figure 2- The initial length of the rod was determined by the meter stick.

The initial length of the two rods were determined by using a meter stick (see figure 2). The first rod used was the aluminum rod. The rod was placed in the expansion apparatus. We made sure that the pin on the tube fits into the slot of the slotted mounting block and the bracket presses against the spring arm of the dial gauge. After that, we placed the thermistor lug in the middle of the tube and locked it with the screw. Then, we inserted the leads of the digital multitested to the banana plug connector of the tube where we determined the resistance of the thermistor and the room temperature and the initial temperature of the tube.

The final resistance and the final temperature of the rod were also determined through the digital multi-tester. The same procedure was also done in the copper rod. RESULTS & GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS Table 1 shows the differences of the properties regarding on the linear expansion of the aluminum and copper rods. The table also shows the percentage of error of the computed value of the coefficient of linear expansion compare to its actual value.

TABLE 1. THE RESULTS OBTAINED Trial/Type of Tube Aluminum Initial Length of Tube, Lo 703 (mm) Initial Resistance of 104200 Thermistor at Room Temperature, Rrm ( ) Initial Temperature, trm 24 (C) Change in Length of 1.23 Tube, L (mm) Resistance of Thermistor 12710 at Final Temperature, Rhot (C) Final Temperature of the 75 tube, thot (C) Change in temperature 51 of the tube, (thot-trm) (C) Experimental Coefficient 3.43E-05 of Linear Expansion, aexperimental Actual coefficient of 2.38E-05 Linear Expansion, aactual Percentage of error (%) 44.15

Copper

705 98500

25 0.87 11310

room, the boiling point of the apparatus was not reached and caused a high percentage error in our experiment. The digital multi-tester was also inconsistent in computing the resistance of the rods and contributed to the errors. Small errors are also made because of the errors in measuring the initial length of the rods. At first, the calculations we did produced a big percentage error, and we decided to conduct the experiment all over again and yielded acceptable results. Since the rod is being cooled then, the initial temperature may have been different and caused small errors. ACKNOWLEDGMENT &REFERENCE First of all, I would like to thank my group mates for helping me understand some parts of the experiment and also by helping me throughout the experiment. Next is to professor Ricardo De Leon, for teaching the experiment slowly but understandable. And effortlessly helps and guides us throughout the experiment. I would also like to commend the Mapua Institute of Technology-Physics Department for providing the different materials used in the experiment. And also to my inspiration, my family. Without their support, I would not be able to reach this far. And lastly, to God, for continuously guiding and protecting me every day of my life and giving me the strength and patience to finish this report. References: (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_ expansion (2) http://www.answers.com/topic/therma l-expansion (3) http://www.cedarville.edu/personal/le e/collegephysics1/phys1010_lab10linear-coef-expan.pdf

79 54 2.29E-05

1.68E-05

36.03

DISCUSSION& SOURCES OF ERRORS The experiment was done to determine and compare the coefficient of linear expansion of the aluminum and copper rods and to determine the factors affecting the change in length. When the temperature of the metal increased, the metal expanded based on the principle of linear expansion. The increase in length was very small and was not seen by the naked eyes. This is because, as the temperature increases, the distance between atoms increases. In the experiment, Table 1 shows the results obtained from our experiment. It shows that the change in length of aluminum was bigger than that of copper. And the coefficient of linear expansion of aluminum is also bigger than that of copper. It shows that the coefficient of linear expansion has a direct relationship to the change in length of the rod. Some problems were encountered during the experiment. The temperature of the room is a factor in this experiment. Since we are in a cold

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