A material’s length changes when its temperature changes.
Difficulty
Beginner
Read time
5 min
Prerequisites
Basic algebra and consistent SI units
Source
OpenStax, College Physics 2e, §13.2 (Paul Peter Urone and Roger Hinrichs)Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
A material’s length changes when its temperature changes. This linear approximation uses the original length and a thermal expansion coefficient. For a positive coefficient, heating lengthens an unconstrained object and cooling shortens it.
| Symbol | Meaning | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Final minus initial length | ||
| Linear thermal expansion coefficient | ||
| Original length | ||
| Temperature change |
Estimate dimensional changes with temperature.
Correct lengths for thermal expansion.
A freely expanding 10.0 m bar warms by 50.0 K. With α = 1.20 × 10⁻⁵ K⁻¹, find its length increase.
Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
Assumptions
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