Chapter 14, Problem 41AP

The spirit-in-glass thermometer, invented in Florence, Italy, around 1654, consists of a tube of liquid (the spirit) containing a number of submerged glass spheres with slightly different masses (Fig. P14.41). At sufficiently low temperatures, all the spheres float, but as the temperature rises, the spheres sink one after another. The device is a crude but interesting tool for measuring temperature. Suppose the tube is filled with ethyl alcohol, whose density is 0.789 45 g/cm³ at 20.0ºC and decreases to 0.780 97 g/cm³ at 30.0ºC. (a) Assuming that one of the spheres has a radius of 1.000 cm and is in equilibrium halfway up the tube at 20.0ºC, determine its mass. (b) When the temperature increases to 30.0ºC, what mass must a second sphere of the same radius have to be in equilibrium at the halfway point? (c) At 30.0ºC, the first sphere has fallen to the bottom of the tube. What upward force does the bottom of the tube exert on this sphere?

Figure P14.41