Question

The thermal conductivity of a brass rod (property: thermal conductivity) when setting up an experiment to measure the thermal conductivity of a solid based on Fourier's Law, what hardware factors will need to be controlled? Give your reason for each one.

Answer 1

a) We can control the supply of the heat and hence the temperature change will be also different. But this will be such that their ratio will be invariant if the thickness and area are the same.

b) If we change the thickness of the material, the temperature difference will be different, And we can use the material with different thickness, so this factor we can control.

c) The area of the cross-section of the material is changed, then also the temperature difference will be affected. And we can control this parameter too.