Physics: Temperature & Heat

Question

An aluminum wing on a passenger jet is 33 m

 long when its temperature is 26°C.

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

Answer 1

You are likely working with this formula for linear thermal expansion:

L' = L(1 + αθ)

1. α is basically a constant that you can look up
2. For aluminum, α = 25.5 °C⁻¹
3. L' is the expanded length at a higher temperature, so that's 33m
4. L is new shorter length, 32.98m
5. θ is the change in temperature from the given value of 26^oC. So it represents how many degrees colder the wing must be than the original temperature to shrink by 2cm.
6. Once you solve this expression for α, subtract it from 26^oC to get your final answer.