A simple interferometric experiment to demonstrate the anomalous behavior of water

Authors

  • Adonis Flores ⋅ PH Department of Physics, University of San Carlos
  • Raymund Sarmiento ⋅ PH Department of Physics, University of San Carlos
  • Roland Otadoy ⋅ PH Department of Physics, University of San Carlos
  • Ben Zuidberg ⋅ PH Department of Physics, University of San Carlos

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a method to demonstrate the anomalous behavior in the density of water. The method employs the fiber optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer developed in our laboratory. We have tried cooling a distilled water sample inserted in one of the arms of the interferometer from about 10.0°C to 0.0°C. The result shows that while cooling the water, there is a reversal in the direction of the change in the optical path length in this arm at about 4°C. Clear proof for it is the reversal in the direction of the shifting of the fringes in the interference pattern (from inward to outward) which is a manifestation of the anomalous behavior in the density of water (which exhibits a maximum at 4°C).

[Reprinted from: A Flores, R Sarmiento, R Otadoy, and B Zuidberg, "A simple interferometric experiment to demonstrate the anomalous behavior of water," in Proceedings of the 21st Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Congress (Cebu City, 2003), SPP-2003-1F-03.]

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Published

2008-04-01

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 3: April 2008

Section

Special Issue on Physics Education