Using Double-Exposure Interferometry to Measure Thermal Expansion in Aluminum

Rob Sweeney

In this experiment, a hologram was taken of a soda can at room temperature. Then 100 mL of hot water was poured into the can at room temperature and the same plate was exposed again. The interference pattern produced was to be used to measure how much the can had expanded due to the heat, but it was concluded that the thermal expansion is too minute for the interference pattern to be workable. It was concluded that double exposure interferometry using red coherent light is an ineffective way to measure thermal expansion.