At what temperature would the wing be 2 cm (0.02 m) shorter?

Question

An aluminum wing on a passenger jet is 28 m long when its temperature is 15°C.

 At what temperature would the wing be 2 cm (0.02 m) shorter?

Answer 1

Emma,

To answer this question, you need to understand thermal expansion/contraction; one assumes the course where this is a question would have covered this. Otherwise, you can look up this information.. You will also need to know the coefficient of linear thermal expansion for aluminum. Armed with that knowledge, this question should become easy.

--Greg