Homework Set 1

PHYS153

due in tutorial
week of Sept 30-Oct 4, 2013

All questions out of 10pts. For each:

Write a few lines (point form is acceptable) describing the approach and identifying the
concepts you will use to solve the problem. (1pt)
Comment on whether your answer makes sense based on what you know about the physical
description of the problem or your everyday experience (eg. order of magnitude, expected units,
is the answer non-physical). (1pt)
Questions marked (I) contain multiple parts guiding you to the final solution(s). The symbol
indicates the kind of question you might be asked on an exam without guiding steps. Questions
marked (II) are less structured and you will have to figure out how to reach a solution.

Useful constants:
R = 8.31JK 1 mol1
Aluminium = 23 106 / C

mercury = 182 106 / C

Steel = 12 106 / C

Quartz = 0.59 106 / C

YSteel = 20 1010 P a

Figure 1: Mercury thermometer for problem 1

1 (I) Liquid thermometer You have a quartz thermometer with interior dimensions 0.8mm
diameter and 150 mm in height sealed at the ends with a 1mL reservoir of mercury at the
bottom (shown in figure 1). At 30 C the reservoir is completely filled and the tube is half
filled with mercury, and the remainder is filled with air (mostly nitrogen, ie. non-interacting).
The volumetric thermal expansion coefficient of mercury is 182106 / C. Assume the liquid
is incompressible (a reasonable assumption in this situation).
(a) Find the volume of mercury in the tube. Does this seem significant compared to the
1mL in the reservoir?
(b) Find the change in volume of the mercury between 30 C and 80 C using just the volume
in the reservoir, and the total volume in the reservoir plus tube. Comparing these two
numbers, did the volume in the tube contribute significantly for the volume change?
(c) Find the change in length and change in diameter of the quartz tube between 30 C and
80 C. Use these to find the change in volume of the tube (neglecting the reservoir). Is
this significant compared to the change in volume of the mercury?
(d)

What is the height of the column of mercury at 80 C?

(e) What is the remaining volume occupied by the air?

1

due in tutorial
PHYS153
Homework Set 1 week of Sept 30-Oct 4, 2013
(f)
If the tube was sealed at 30 C (ie. the air in the tube was at atmospheric pressure at 30 C), and the quartz can withstand a maximum of 150 kPa pressure, will the
thermometer explode at 80 C?

2 (I) Boiling dry? 50g of liquid water is warmed from room temperature to the boiling point
in the graph shown in figure 2. Assume the rate of heat introduced to the system is constant.
Hint: this is similar to an in-class activity with real data (the graph given is an idealized
representation).
(a) At what time does the water begin to boil?
(b) What is the rate of change of temperature before the water boils
(c) What is the rate at which heat is being added to the water?

 How much of the water has boiled (converted to water vapour) at t=12 000 s (the
end of the graph)?
(e)  How long will it take from where the graph starts (t=0) for all the water to boil?

(d)

Temperature (C)

100

80

60

40

20
0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

time (s)

Figure 2: Plot of temperature vs. time for 50g of water for question 2

3 (II) Buckled railway A 1 km steel railroad rail is fastened securely at both ends when the
temperature is 20 C. With increasing temperature the rail begins to buckle.
(a) Assuming the buckle is triangular, how high is the buckle at 25 C?
(b) How much stress is in the rail if it does not buckle? (note that buckling occurs to relieve
this stress)

due in tutorial
PHYS153
Homework Set 1 week of Sept 30-Oct 4, 2013
4 (II) Thermal positioner In an experiment, a small radioactive source must be moved at
extremely slow speeds. A positioning device based on thermal expansion was devised where
the radioactive source is attached to one end of an aluminum rod and a heating coil is
wrapped around a section of the rod as shown in figure 3. The rod is fixed on the other end.
If the effectively heated section is 5.0cm, at what constant rate do you need to change the
temperature of the rod so that the source moves at a constant speed of 50nm/s?

Figure 3: Thermal positioner for problem 4

5 (II) Watch the time Many modern watches operate based on a small quartz tuning fork
which transduces a mechanical oscillation
into an electrical signal. The frequency of the
tuning fork is inversely proportional to l, with l being the length of the fork. If the watch
keeps perfect time at 20 C, what is the fractional gain or loss in time for a quartz tuning fork
that is 6mm long at (a) 0 C, and (b) 30 C? Hint: try working this out algebraically. The
changes are small and prone to rounding issues.