A Course of Practical Physics for Students of Science and Engineering

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ...and to construct a table of corrections for use with the instrument. Manipulation And Computation.--By means of elastic bands attach to the burette on the side opposite the graduations a strip of glass mirror in such a manner that on looking through the burette the reflection of the graduations is seen in the mirror. Fill the burette with mercury up to the highest numbered division. Now discharge mercury from the burette into a small tared beaker until the horizontal tangent to the mercury meniscus is opposite the next lower numbered division. Weigh the beaker and its contents. Discharge more mercury into the beaker until the horizontal tangent to the meniscus is opposite the next lower numbered division. Again weigh beaker and contents. Continue thus until the mass of mercury corresponding to each numbered space has been determined. In order to avoid the error of parallax when taking a reading of the position of the mercury meniscus, the line of sight must be in the plane tangent to the mensicus and its image reflected by the mirror. Knowing that at 20 C one ex. of mercury weighs 13.546 gms., the volume between any two division lines can be at once computed. From this series of values construct a table of corrections for the burette. XVII. DETERMINATION OF THE VOLUME OF A SOLID BY IMMERSION. Object And Theory Of Experiment.--Since a solid body immersed in a liquid is acted upon by an upthrust equal to the weight of liquid displaced by the body, and since the volume of liquid displaced equals the volume of the body, if the mass of unit volume of the liquid is known and the magnitude of the upthrust be measured, the volume of the body can be at once calculated. The volume of the displaced liquid, i. e., the volume of the solid body, is obviously equal to the...