This lab is lovely, but fussy. Coefficients of thermal expansion can be determined fairly accurately, but the technique requires a bit of patience and a steady hand. There's a little bit of clever geometry involved in turning a large angular measurement into a tiny linear measurement.
Student Objectives
- Observe the linear expansion of several metallic samples
- Devise an indirect method to accurately measure an expansion too small to see or record with a meter stick
- Determine the coefficient of thermal expansion for different metallic samples
- Calculate the amount of error in an experimental value