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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Volume Thermal Expansion and Contraction, this is the fourth lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Thermal Expansion, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
As stated earlier, when an object expands or contract due to the change in temperature, it experiences a volume thermal expansion or contraction. Since objects extend in three dimensions in space, they experience a linear expansion or contraction for each dimension. This mean the coefficient of volume expansion or contraction γ is triple the corresponding linear expansion coefficient α, i.e.
For example, given that the linear thermal expansion of mercury is α = 61 × 10-6 K-1, its corresponding coefficient of volume thermal expansion is
In this way, if an object has a volume V0 at temperature T0, its volume V at another temperature T becomes
A plastic object of volume 40 cm3 is brought near a heat source in which the air temperature is 80°C. Given that the linear expansion coefficient of plastics at 20°C is 100 × 10-6 K-1, calculate the final volume of the object after experiencing thermal expansion.
We have the following clues:
V0 = 40 cm3 = 40 × 10-6 m3 = 4 × 10-5 m3
t0 = 20°C
t = 80°C
α = 100 × 10-6 K-1 = 10-4 K-1
V = ?
We have:
This means the object's volume increases by 0.72 cm3 during the given process of thermal expansion.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 13.2.4 Volume Thermal Expansion and Contraction. There are 7 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Thermal Expansion, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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