Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr.

Abbas Alabbasi

Practical Medical Physics

(2022-2023)

Laboratory Manual of Medical Physics:

1. Measurement the surface tension of water by the capillary

tube method.

2-Determine the focal length of a convex lens by a graphical

method.

3-Measurement the refractive index of a liquid by Abbe-

Refractometer.

4. The acceleration of free fall by means of the simple

Pendulum.

5-Determine the focal length of a convex lens by a graphical

magnification and distance of the image method.

6-Measurement the wavelength of mercury light using a

diffraction grating.
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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

Summary of writing the lab report

University of Kufa

Faculty of Pharmacy

Experiment number:

Title of the experiment:

Name of the author:

Name of the partners:

Date the experiment was performed:

Due date for this report:

It is a brief summary of the objective of the experiment, the theory

associated with this experiment, and the equation used or equation
derivation.

The procedures, apparatus setup, model and/or serial numbers.

Results (summarize your outcome, graph and tables).

Conclusions (Conclusions, observations, and recommendations).

References (Books or journals).

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

1. The surface tension of water by the capillary tube method.

1.1 Introduction
This is the simplest and oldest method used for surface tension determination. A
consequence of the surface tension appearance at the water-air interface is moving up of the
water into a thin tube that is capillary, which is usually made of glass. Capillary action is the
ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces without the assistance of, or even in opposition to
external forces like gravity. The effect can be seen in the drawing up of liquids between the
hairs of a paint-brush and in porous materials such as paper. If the interaction forces of the
liquid with the capillary walls (adhesion) are stronger than those between the liquid
molecules (cohesion), the liquid wets the walls and rises in the capillary to a defined level
and the meniscus is hemispherically (is half of a sphere) concave. In the opposite situation
the forces cause decrease of the liquid level in the capillary below that in the chamber and
the meniscus is semispherically convex. Both cases are illustrated in Fig. 1

Fig. 1: The types of meniscus in capillary tube.

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

1-2 Apparatus:
Set of three capillary tubes – one of 0.5 mm diameter, one of greater and one of less
diameter, dilute nitric acid, dilute caustic soda solution, travelling microscope or a glass scale
and rubber bands, beaker, stand, clamp and thermometer.

1-3 Method
Clean all three capillary tubes from dirt and grease both inside and outside by washing them
successively with nitric acid, with tap-water, with caustic soda solution and lastly and
repeatedly with tap-water. The beaker and the glass scale (if used) must also be free from dirt
and grease so clean them in the same way.

Fill the beaker to overflowing with water so that the water level stands up above the glass, as
shown in Fig 2, (To facilitate this choose ‘a beaker or other vessel that does not possess a lip
for pouring). Select the capillary tube of medium bore. Hold it in a clamp with its lower end
immersed in the water. Before measuring the capillary rise push the tube a little farther down
into the water and then restore it to its original position. This ensures that the tube is wet a
little above the meniscus.

Fig. 2: Setting beaker and capillary tube.

Measure the height h to which the meniscus rises in the capillary tube above the level of the
water in the beaker, either by means of a glass scale fixed to the capillary tube by rubber
bands or preferably by using a travelling microscope.

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

Focus the microscope on the meniscus of the water level in the capillary tube and
adjust the microscope until the horizontal cross-wire is tangential to the bottom the meniscus
which is of course seen inverted in the eyepiece of the microscope. To facilitate preliminary
Focusing of the microscope on the meniscus it is useful to hold a piece of paper with printing
on it behind the capillary tube and first focus on that.

After recording, the height registered by the meniscus then focuses the microscope on
the free water surface in the beaker. It is here that the device of filling the beaker to
overflowing is proved useful, this gives a clear horizontal water surface above the glass of
the beaker and focusing on this is easy. Cut the capillary tube at the place previously
occupied by the meniscus and reassure the internal diameter d by the travelling microscope,
taking the mean of two determinations at right angle.

Repeat the measurements with the other two cleaned capillary tube in turn. Tabulate the
readings as following:

Tubes Diameter (d) in meter Height (h) in meter Surface tension

1
  dh g
4
in Nm-1
1 2 Mean
First tube
Second tube
Third tube

The mean of surface tension is ……….. Nm-1 at ………….ᵒC

1-4 Experiment details:

1. As even small traces of grease cause large variations in the value of the surface tension of
liquids, care should be taken to avoid touching the liquid surface or any part of the capillary
tube which after cleaning, is going to be immersed in the liquid.

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

Fig.3: Testing for capillary tube after cleaning.

2. If a travelling microscope is not available to measure the capillary rise, devices like bents
pins fastened to the tube with rubber bands serve admirably to fix the positions of the
meniscus and the water level in the beaker (see fig. 4). The distance between the points of
the pins may be determined at leisure on a scale after the tube has been withdrawn.

Fig. 4: Fixing the positions of water level in the beaker by using pin.

3. It is important to record the temperature of the water because surface tension changes with
change of temperature.
4. The formula below from which the surface tension is calculated applies only to liquids
which ’wet’ the glass and whose angle of contact with the glass is zero for water, aqueous

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

solutions, alcohol etc. But for other liquids which have an appreciable angle of contact θ
dh g
with the glass the formula is modified to   and the appropriate angle of contact must
4cos 
either be measured (difficult) or looked up in tables.

1-5 Theory and calculations:

Look up in tables the density of water at the particular temperature of the experiment
and record it (ρ) in kg m-3 and take g= 9.8 ms-2. Calculate surface tension γ from:

1
  dh g
4 (1)

Remembering that d (diameter) and h (height) are both measured in m.

1-6 Errors arid accuracy

1. The errors arise in the measurements of the diameter d of the capillary tube and of the
capillary rise h. Estimate these as % errors having regard to the scale of the microscope and
the fact that both are difference measurements.

From equation (1)

% error in γ = sum o1% errors in d and h

2. The discrepancies between the three values obtained for γ will indicate the order of
accuracy that can be obtained.

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

2. Determine the focal length of a convex lens by graphical method.

2.1 Introduction
A converging lens (or convex) is thicker at the center than at the periphery and light
from an object at infinity passes through the lens and converges (brings closer) to a real
image at the focal point (FP) on the other side of the lens. A diverging lens (or concave lens)
is thinner at the center than at the periphery and light from an object at infinity appears to
diverge from a virtual focus point on the same side of the lens as the object. The principal
axis of a lens is a line drawn through the center of the lens perpendicular to the face of the
lens. The point at which the light rays cross is called the focal point (FP) of the lens and the
distance from the center of the lens to its focal point is called the focal length f (See Fig. 5).

Fig.5: Converging and diverging Lenses

2-2 Apparatus:
Convex lens and holder, source of light (or mounted pins) as object, meter rule or optical
bunch as shown in Fig. 6.

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

Fig. 6: Optical bench arrangement

2-3 Method
1. Obtain a rough value f ̶ for the focal length of the lens by focusing the image on the
screen ( sheet of paper).
2. Place an object pin (or light) at a distance from the lens equal to 2 f ̶ and locate the
position of real image, which will be at approximately the same distance 2 f ̶ on other
side of the lens. Measure the distance of the object pin u and of the image pin v from
the lens. (Hint: u is the distance from the lens to the object and v is the distance
between from the lens to the image , see Fig. 7)
3. Move the object pin 2 cm nearer the lens and locate the new position of the image.
Move the object pin nearer to the lens each time. Take many such pairs of reading to
1
enable you to draw the graph of against 1 , not forgetting that the two readings of
u v

each pair are interchangeable (conjugate foci for a lens).

4. Record the readings in the form a table:

u in cm v in cm 1 1
cm 1
cm 1
u v

1
5. Plot graph of cm 1 against 1 cm 1 , then draw the best straight line through the
u v
points and produce it to intersect both axes.
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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

Fig. 7: u and v in Optical bench

2-4 Experiment details:

1. To set the object pin at a distance from the convex lens equal approximately twice
the focal length (2 f ) of the lens is a useful starting point in any convex lens
experiment, as it is position in which the object and image distances are equal
(u = v) and the magnification unity (m = 1 when = u = v = 2 f ). Where m is the
value of magnification.
h
m = the size of image (h in cm) / the size of object (hᵒ in cm). m  .
h

2. As u changes from 2 f to f, v changes from 2 f to infinity. Remembering that value

of u and v are interchangeable it is ready seen that all possible values of both u and
v between f and infinity are obtained for a movement of the object pin over the
range 2 f to f. The object pin should therefore be restricted to this narrow range, so
avoiding the haphazard collection of suitable value of u and v.
3. It is of course, useless to place the object pin nearer to the lens than the focus as the
image produced would be virtual.

2-5 Theory and calculations:

1 1 1
 
In the usual notation: u v f

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Practical Medical Physics for1st Year faculty of Pharmacy / University of Kufa Prof. Dr. Abbas Alabbasi

1 1
cm 1 cm 1
Hence. If values u are plotted against values of v , a straight line inclined at
1
.
45ᵒ to each axis is obtain as shown in the Fig. 8. The intercept on each axis is a value of f

 1 1 
 f  f 
Take the mean of the two intercepts ( meanint .   1 2 
). The reciprocal of this
2
1
( ) is the magnitude of the focal length f (in cm) of the lens.
meanint .

1 1
cm 1 cm 1
Fig. 8: The graph of u against values of v

2-6 Errors arid accuracy

1. The usual errors exist in reading the scale position of the lens and the object and the
image pins.
2. From the graph estimate the likely error in f from the different between the value
found from the intercepts of the chosen “best” straight line and the value found from
the intercept of other possible straight lines drawn though the points.
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