EXPANSION

- Thermal expansion is a property which most substance show when they are heated.
- Themral expansion is the increase in size or spread out of substances when they become
hot.

EXPANSION OF SOLIDS

The expansion of a solid with temperature rise is to small that special apparatus are required
to demonstrate it. The simple laboratory apparatus shown below can be used to demonstrate
it.

(a) Ball And Ring

( i) Before heating

Handle Ring

Ball
When the ball and the ring are at room temperature the ball passes through the ring.

(ii) After heating

- When the ball is heated alone it falls to pass through the ring as shown above.
- When the ring is heated to the same temperature as the ball, the ball passes through the
ring again.
The experiment demonstrate cubic expansion in solids.
(b) Rod And Gauge

Gauge

Hall

gap
Rod

- When the rod and the gauge are at the same temperature the rod is able to pass
through the gap and the hole on the gauge.
- When the rod is heated it fails to pass through the gap and the hall. The experiment
shown demonstrates linear and area expansion in solids.

Consequences Of Expansion In Solids

- When materials expand very large forces maybe setup. If there is an obstruction to the
free movement of the expanding or contracting bodies this can produce disastrous
results. These can be controlled in the following examples.

(a) Bridges

- In hot weather, bridges fixed at both ends would expand against the support and the large
force exerted would make the bridge collapse.
- To prevent that, the bridges rest on rollers at one or both ends so that the metals are free
to expand and contract in summer and winter.

(b) Railway Lines

- In early methods of laying rail lines, gaps have to be left between successive lengths
of rail to allow for any expansion. Even when this such gas are left the rails may
sometimes lose up the gaps.
- If this happens a rise in temperature may lead to buckling of the track. The movement
of the rail joints are allowed by making the bolt holes slotted.

New Method Of Alling Railways

USES OF EXPANSION IN SOLIDS

(a) Rivets
Sheets plates such as those used in ship building or large boiler are usually riveted together
using red hot rivets. Holes are made in the overlapping plates and a red hot rivet is pushed
through and its head held tightly against the top plate. The other end of the rivet is
hammered tight against the bottom plate. This provides a good seal against the sea for ship
plates and against steam in large boilers.

Plates

Hot Cold

(b) WHEELS AND TYRES OF A TRAIN

Tyres have to be removed from time to time owing to wear. To ensure a tight fit is made,
tyres are smaller in diameter than the wheel.

Before being fitted, the tyre is heated uniformly by special gas burner. The resulting
expansion enables the tyre to be slipped easily over the wheel and on cooling, it contracts
and make a tight fit
(c) A BIMETALLIC STRIP
- A bimetallic strip can be made by placing two strips of different metals (e.g. Brass and
Iron) side by side and welded them together along their entire length.
- If the bimetallic strip is heated, it appears as shown. This shows that brass expands
more than iron for the same temperature rise.
- The bimetallic strip straightened when it cools to room temperature. If it is cooled
more below room temperature, the brass would contract more than iron, so the strip
would curve with iron at the out outside of the curve.

Brass

Iron
Before heating
Brass Iron

Brass Iron
After heating When cooled
The bimetallic strip has many applications of which some of the most important are:
(i) Electric Thermostat

A thermostat is a device for maintaining steady temperature.

.

(ii) AUTOMATIC FLASHING UNIT

- The Automatic flashing unit is used for direction indicator lamps on motor cars or for
electric advertising signs. When the switch is closed current passes through a heating coil
wound round a bimetallic strip.
Bimetallic Thermometer

One end of thin bimetallic spiral is fixed, the other end being attached to the spindle of a
pointer which moves over a scale of degrees. When the temperature increases the
bimetallic strip tends to curl more making the pointer deflect.
EXPANSION OF LIQUIDS
The expansion of liquids can be demonstrated using the apparatus below.

Thin glass tube

into hot water bath

Cork

Liquid
Flask

Liquid level first falls then rises

when the flask is put
- The flask filled with water or other liquid and fitted with a cork with thin glass tube
until the level of the liquid comes a short distance up the tube above the cork.
- On putting the flask in a water bath the level of the liquid in the tube first falls
slightly and then starts to rise steadily.
- The initial fall in the level is caused by the expansion of the glass (flask) which
becomes heated and expands before the heat has time to be conducted through the
glass into the liquid.

To Compare The Different Cubic Expansions Of Various Liquids

- Different identical several glass bulbs with glass stems are filled to a short same
distance above the bulbs with various liquids.
- The bulbs are immersed in a water bath containing cold water until they have a
steady temperature.
- Extra liquid must be added where necessary, to make the levels the same. On heating
the bath it is noticed that the liquid levels rise to different levels. Thus equal volumes
of different liquids show different expansions in volume, for a given rise in
temperature.
 Ether
Benzene

Alcohol
Water

Water bath

THE UNUSUAL EXPANSION OF WATER

- When ice is warmed from a lower temperature (e.g. -20oC) it expands considerable up
to 0oC when it melts.
- During melting there is higher change (drop) in volume i.e. for every 109cm3 of ice
produces 100cm3 of water. The in volume when water freezes accounts for the
breakage of water pipes in cold regions.
- Between 0oC to 4oC water contracts and reduces in volume. This is called the
anomalous behavior of water. Because density is inversely proportional to volume,
water has the highest density at 4oC. Above 4oC upwards water will start to expand
again.
- The diagram for variation of volume and density with temperature of water is shown
below.

BIOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE FOR THE ANOMALOUS EXPANSION OF WATER.

- The anomalous expansion of water has an important bearing on the preservation of
aquatic life in very cold weather. As the temperature of the pond or lake falls, the water
on top contracts, becomes denser and sinks. The water at the bottom which is less denser
rises to the top.
- A conduction (because the convection current stops when all the water has reached 4oC).
In deeper water there will always be water beneath the ice in which fish and other
aquatic creatures can live.

HEAT TRANSMISSION

Heat can be transmitted from one place to another by any of the three processes conduction,
convection and radiation.

A. CONDUCTION

-This mode of heat transfer occurs mainly in solids. When a metal bar is heated at one end,
heat soon reaches the other end.
-Gases are extremely bad conductors of heat because their molecules are even farther apart
compared to those of liquids.
- Conduction is therefore the flow of heat through matter from places of higher
temperature to places of lower temperature without the movement of the matter as a
Whole.

GOOD AND BAD CONDUCTORS

(a) GOOD CONDUCTORS

These are used whenever heat is required to travel quickly through something. Saucepans,
boiler and radiators are made of metals such as aluminium, iron, and copper which are good
conductors. Mercury is used in thermometers.

(b) BAD CONDUCTORS

Bad conductors have a very wide applications

• Air is one of the worst conductors ( best insulators ). This is why houses with
cavity walls ( i.e. two walls separated by an air space ) and double – glazed
windows keep warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
• Woolen sweaters keeps us warm during the cold weather by trapping air in the
numerous spaces between the fibres. This air prevents much of the heat of the
body from being conducted to the outside.
• Materials which trap air e.g. wool, felt, feather, polystyrene, fiberglass are bad
conductors, some of these materials are used as lagging ( the technique of
stopping or reducing heat loss by conduction ) to insulate water pipes, hot
water cylinders, ovens, refrigerators and walls and roofs of houses.

COMPARISON OF CONDUCTIVITIES OF DIFFERENT METALS

Rods of different materials but having the same length and diameter are passed through corks
inserted in holes in the side of a metal trough. The rods are first dipped into molten paraffin
wax and withdrawn to allow a coating of ax to solidify on them.

Hot water

Arrows show extent to which wax

has melted

Wood Lead Iron Aluminium Copper

Boiling water is then poured into the trough so that the ends of the rods are all heated to the
same temperature. After some time have elapsed it is noticed that wax has melted to different
distances along the rods, indicating differences in the thermal conductivities.
CONDUCTION OF HEAT THROUGH LIQUIDS
All ordinary liquids, with the exception of mercury and other molten liquids are poor
conductors of heat.

Water can be shown to be a bad conductor of heat by wrapping a piece of ice in gauge to
make it sink and placing it at the bottom of a test – tube nearly full of water. By holding the
top of the tube in a Bunsen flame, the water at the top may be boiled vigorously while the ice
at the bottom remains unmelted.

Negligible Boiling
water conduction - - - - =
_ - - -
- - -- -
- - - - Heat

Ice wrapped in gauge remains unmelted

TO COMPARE THE CONDUCTUVITY OF WATER AND MERCURY

Mercury may be shown to be a better conductor than water by taking two test – tubes
containing mercury and water respectively and attaching a cork to the bottom of each melted
wax. A piece of copper wire in each of the liquids as shown.
B . CONVECTION
- When a vessel containing a liquid is heated at the bottom a current of hot liquid
moves upwards and its place is taken by a cold current downwards. Streams of warm moving
fluids are called convection currents.
- They arise when a fluid is heated because it expands, becomes less dense and is
forced upwards by surrounding cooler denser fluid which moves under it.

‘convection is the flow of heat through a fluid from places of temperature to places of
lower temperature by movement of the fluid itself.’

TO DEMONSTRATE CONVECTION IN WATER

Place a crystal of potassium permanganate at the bottom of a flask full of water ( using a
length of glass tube ). Heat the bottom of the flask as shown below.
On heating the bottom of the flask an upward current of coloured water will ascend from the
place where the heat is applied. This coloured stream reaches the top and spreads out. After a
short time it circulates down the sides of the flask showing that a convection current has been
set up.

TO DEMONSTRATE CONVECTION CURRENT IN AIR

The figure below shows the laboratory model of demonstrating convection in air

Smouldering
paper
Shows the
direction Of
smoke
Candle

It consists of two wide glass tubes projecting from the top of a rectangular wooden box with
glass front. A short of candle is lit at the base of one of the tubes. When a piece of
smouldering brown paper is held over the top of the other tube the direction of the convection
currents will be rendered visible by the passage of smoke through the box.

USES AND EXAMPLES OF CONVECTION

(i) brazier
(ii) electric kettle
 (iii) DOMESTIC HOT WATER SYSTEM

The figure shows a common hot system in which the water is heated in a boiler. When the
water is heated it rises through pipe C and goes to the top of the hot water tank. Cold water
enters the pipe through pipe B from the bottom of the hot water tank take its place and be
heated also. A convection current is therefore set up. If the water is overheated, it expands
through the expansion pipe D and may even flow into the cold water tank.

(iv)
C. RADIATION

Radiant heat which has passed through a vacuum can be easily felt by holding the hand near
a vacuum – filled electric lamp when the current is switched on.

TO COMPARE THE RADIATION FROM DIFFERENT SURFACES

The rate at which a body radiates heat depends on

(a) its temperature
(b) its surface area
(c) the nature of the surface
.

ABSORPTION OF RADIANT HEAT BY A SURFACE

The absorbing powers of a dull black and a polished surface may be compared by using two
sheets of metals, one polished and the other painted black

Black surface Polished surface

wax holing
this cork
soon melts

Heat

On the reverse side of each plate, a cork is fixed by means of a little melted paraffin wax. The
plates are set vertically equidistant from a heat source to receive equal quantities of radiant
heat. In a short time the wax on the dull black plate melts and the cork slides off. The
polished surface, however, remains cool and the wax unmelted.
This shows that black surface is a good absorber of radiation than polished surfaces. The
polished surface is therefore a good reflector of heat.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF RADIATION

• Buildings in hot countries are often painted white because white surface reflects
heat White clothes are cooler in summer for the same reason.
• The cooling fins on the back of a refrigerator are black so that they lose heat more
easily.

VACUUM FLASK

Vacuum flask also known as a Thermos flask consists of a double-walled glass vessel having
a vacuum between the walls. Both walls are silvered on the vacuum side. Heat exchange by
conduction and convection is reduced by the vacuum. Heat exchange by radiation is reduced
by the silvered surfaces. Little heat is transmitted by conduction through the thin glass walls
at the neck, and the poorly conducting cork. The sum total of heat transfer is very small.

Cork

Vacuum
 Silvered
surfaces

Asbestos anti-
shock pad
Vacuum seal

GREENHOUSES AND GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Glasshouses or greenhouses are used to grow plants. The sun emits heat radiations in form of
visible light and short wavelength infrared rays which easily pass through glass without being
absorbed. The rays are absorbed by the earth and objects inside the greenhouse which raises
the temperature of air by conduction and convection. infrared rays).

Carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere act in a similar way to green house. The
atmosphere lets infrared rays in and traps them - this produces the ‘greenhouse effect’.
Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide is responsible for the rising temperature of the
atmosphere.