A PROPOSAL FOR A REFERENCELESS APPROACH TO MEASUREMENTS OF THE THERMAL-EXPANSION OF SOLIDS

A referenceless approach for thermal expansion and other dimensional s tability measurement problems is established. The method is based on m easuring the light intensity scattered by the uniformly illuminated su rface. Since the change in intensity is proportional to the change in area. such as that caused by thermal expansion, the procedure yields a n excellent measurement tool. An aluminium surface is used to demonstr ate the validity of the procedure practically. The thermal expansion c oefficient determined experimentally is in close agreement with the ex pected value.