Define Linear expansion in solids due to change in temperature.
The length of an object is one of the more obvious things that depends on temperature. When something is heated or cooled, its length changes by an amount proportional to the original length and the change in temperature:
linear expansion : ΔL=αL0ΔT (α is the coefficient of linear expansion)
The coefficient of linear expansion depends only on the material an object is made from.
If an object is heated or cooled and it is not free to expand or contract (it's tied down at both ends, in other words), the thermal stresses can be large enough to damage the object, or to damage whatever the object is constrained by. This is why bridges have expansion joints in them (check this out where the BU bridge meets Comm. Ave.). Even sidewalks are built accounting for thermal expansion.
Holes expand and contract the same way as the material around them.
The length of an object is one of the more obvious things that depends on temperature. When something is heated or cooled, its length changes by an amount proportional to the original length and the change in temperature:
linear expansion : ΔL=αL0ΔT (α is the coefficient of linear expansion)
The coefficient of linear expansion depends only on the material an object is made from.
If an object is heated or cooled and it is not free to expand or contract (it's tied down at both ends, in other words), the thermal stresses can be large enough to damage the object, or to damage whatever the object is constrained by. This is why bridges have expansion joints in them (check this out where the BU bridge meets Comm. Ave.). Even sidewalks are built accounting for thermal expansion.
Holes expand and contract the same way as the material around them.
