About the Thermal Expansion: Five Experiments simulation
Things grow when they are heated, but the effects can be surprising. This 3D thermal expansion simulation runs five classic experiments, each heated by a burner. A metal plate with a hole is heated: the hole grows rather than shrinks, because every length on the plate grows by the same fraction. A flask of coloured liquid with a narrow tube goes into hot water: the level first dips, because the glass warms first, and then rises — the difference between real and apparent expansion.
The ball-and-ring experiment shows a ball that passes through a ring when cold, sticks when heated, and passes again when the ring is heated too. Railway rails need a gap of LαΔT at each joint; without enough gap they are squeezed with a thermal stress YαΔT that buckles the track. And a cube floating in a liquid sinks deeper as both warm, if the liquid expands more than the solid. Expansion is tiny, so each stage draws the change exaggerated and says by how much, while every number on the page is the true one.
Also covers: thermal expansion, linear expansion, area expansion, volume expansion, coefficient of linear expansion, hole in a heated plate, ball and ring experiment, railway track gap, thermal stress, apparent expansion of liquid, real and apparent expansion, floating body on heating, β = 2α, γ = 3α, class 11 thermal properties, jee thermal expansion.
