Expansion of mercury in a thermometer

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around calculating the rise of mercury in a thermometer as it heats from 10°C to 90°C. The initial calculation found a change in volume of mercury, resulting in a length of 741mm for the mercury column in the thermometer's narrow bore. The values used include a total mercury volume of 0.400cm³ and a bore diameter of 0.10mm. Participants confirm the calculations, noting the large volume of mercury and the fine bore size contribute to the unexpectedly long mercury column. The findings raise questions about the practicality of such a thermometer design.
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I think that I’m doing this problem correctly, but the answer seems a bit unreasonable. Can someone else check my work?

A thermometer has a quartz body within which is sealed a total volume of 0.400cm^{3} of mercury. The stem contains a cylindrical hole with a bore diameter of 0.10mm. How far does the mercury column extend in the process of rising from 10deg C to 90deg C? Neglect any change in the volume of the quartz.

I first found the change in volume of the mercury.
\Delta V=\beta V_{0}\Delta T
\beta = 182x10^{-6}K^{-1} from a table in the book.
V_{0}=.400cm^{3}
\Delta T=90-10=80 deg
\Delta V=.005824cm^{3}=5.824mm^{3}

This change in volume will fill a portion of the slender cylindrical hole in the quartz.
The volume of a cylinder is V=L\pi \frac{D}{4}^{2} Where L is the length of the cylinder and D is its diameter.
L =\frac{4V}{\pi D^{2}}
V is the \Delta V calculated above and D is given as 0.10mm.
L=741mm

This seems like a very long thermometer.

Thanks in advance for any responses.
 
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I thought you had made a mistake in your calculation but I have used your numbers and got the same as you
 
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In addition!...0.4 seems like a large volume and 0.1 mm seems like a very fine bore
 
Thanks for your help.
 
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