Abstract. Attention is drawn on the fact that several tables of the thermal expansion of water are available between 0 and 40 °C. For a given temperature, the values they give are somewhat different. No criterion helps to select between them the table that gives the most reliable values. The drawbacks of such a situation are reviewed and recommendations made to lessen their effects.

Tables and graphs show the existing deviations, according to temperature, between the values of the various tables.

New observations are needed to obtain values of the thermal expansion of water between 0 and 40 °C, having a relative accuracy of at least 1 × 10^-6.

Print publication: Issue 2 (April 1973)
Received 24 November 1972