DIGITIZED NOTES
0625 PHYSICS
YEAR 10
THERMAL PHYSICS
THERMAL PROPERTIES AND TEMPERATURE.
THERMAL EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION
Solids, liquids and gases increase in volume or expand when heated. The greater the
temperature rise, the greater the expansion. When cooled, the volume will decrease, i.e., it
will contract.
Thermal expansion: the increase in volume of a material when its temperature rises
According to the kinetic theory the molecules of solids and liquids are in constant vibration.
When heated they vibrate faster and force each other a little further apart. Expansion
results, and this is greater for liquids than for solids; gases expand even more.
The linear (length) expansion of solids is small and for the effect to be noticed, the solid
must be long and/or the temperature change must be large.
The amount that solids expand is so small that it cannot be detected visually.
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• When the ball is cold, it just fits through the ring.
• The ball, but not the ring, is heated strongly. It now will not pass through the ring. It has
expanded.
•When the ball cools down, it contracts and returns to its original size and will once again
pass through the ring.
Liquids expand more than solids for the same temperature rise. This is the principle behind
liquid-in-glass thermometers.
When the bulb of alcohol is heated, you can see the liquid expanding along the thin
capillary tube inside.
Gases expand much more than liquids. The warmth of your hands is enough to make air
expand by a large amount.
The air in the test tube expands and bubbles of air are seen escaping from the tube.
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Why do solids, liquids and gases expand by different amounts?
Heating materials gives the particles more kinetic energy. In solids, the particles vibrate
more vigorously. Strong forces between them results in a small expansion.
In liquids, the particles move around faster. The forces between the particles are weaker as
compared to solids, so the expansion is greater.
Gas particles move about the fastest as compared to solid and liquid particles. Gases have
the greatest expansion because there is little force between the particles.
When materials are heated, the particles themselves do not expand, but the volume that
they occupy does.
Applications and consequences of expansion.
1.Railway lines
Some railway lines have expansion gaps to allow for expansion when the lines get hot.
Railway lines are now usually made from a metal alloy that expands
very little.
This is to allow the trains to move more smoothly. The lines are designed to fit tightly on a
hot day. On cold days, the lines contract, but they are still held in place by supporting
structures underneath.
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2. Bridges
Bridges also expand and contract with changes in temperature.
The figure shows an expansion gap at one end of a concrete bridge. On a hot day, the bridge
expands and the interlocking teeth of the joint move closer together.
Another way of allowing for expansion is to put one end of the bridge on rollers.
3. Shrink fitting
Expansion can be used to fix two metal parts together using shrink fitting.
An example is fitting a metal axle into a metal train wheel .
The metal axle is first made too large for the hole in the metal train wheel. Then, the axle is
cooled to shrink so it will fit into the wheel. When the axle warms up and expands, the two
metals are firmly held together
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4.Bimetallic strip
If equal lengths of two different metals, such as copper and iron, are riveted together so
that they cannot move separately, they form a bimetallic strip.
When heated, copper expands more than iron and to allow this the strip bends with copper
on the outside.
Bimetallic strips have many uses.
a) Fire alarm
Heat from the fi re makes the bimetallic strip bend and complete the electrical circuit, so
ringing the alarm bell.
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b) Thermostat
A thermostat keeps the temperature of a room or an appliance constant.
The one in the figure below uses a bimetallic strip in the electrical heating circuit of, for
example, an iron.
When the iron reaches the required temperature the strip bends down, breaks the circuit at
the contacts and switches off the heater.
After cooling a little the strip remakes contact and turns the heater on again.A near-steady
temperature results.
If the control knob is screwed down, the strip has to bend more to break the heating circuit
and this needs a higher temperature.
