What is the Volumetric Coefficient Of Expansion?
The volumetric coefficient of expansion determines how the volume of a solid object will expand or contract as a function of pressure. All solid objects are made up of molecules and atoms that are bonded to one another electromagnetically. When heat flows through objects, it is introducing kinetic motion at the molecular scale that causes the atoms and molecules to vibrate. Eventually, molecules begin to gain new degrees of freedom, or ways to move in space, and this is the phenomenon that lends rise to the observation that almost every solid object expands when heated. A change in volume with respect to temperature can be understood mathematically in the following way: ΔV = αv ΔT V0 where ΔV is the change in volume, αv is the volumetric coefficient of expansion, ΔT is the change in temperature from the initial temperature associated with V0, the initial volume. There are many recorded values for αv, depending on the substance. There is also a special relationship between αv and the li
