Question

The cubic expansivity of mercury is 1.8×10^-4K^-1 and the linear expansivity of glass is 8.0×10^-6K^-1, calculate the apparent expansivity of mercury in a glass container?

Answer 1

$\begin{gathered} \text{cubic expansivity of mercury=1.8}\times10^{-4}K^{-1} \\ \text{ Linear expansivity of glass = 8.0}\times10^{-6}K^{-1} \end{gathered}$

Therefore,

$Apparent\text{ cubic expansivity=}real\text{ cubic expansivity - cubic expansivity of the container}$$\begin{gathered} \text{ cubic expansivity of the container =3(}8.0\times10^{-6})=24\times10^{-6}=2.4\times10^{-5} \\ \text{note we converted linear expansivity to cubic expansivity} \end{gathered}$

Finally,

$\text{Apparent cubic expansivity=}1.8\times10^{-4}-2.4\times10^{-5}=1.56\times10^{-4}K^{-1}$