Physical Measurements/ Physics question?

Question

Give an example where the knowledge of the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion of different materials would be required.

Answer 1

How about in the kitchen, when warming up a metal jar top makes it easier to take off because metal has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than does glass?

Or knowing not to pour hot fluids into a cold glass because the coefficient for glass is still hot enough so that the inside and the outside of the glass, being at different temperatures, move too much relative to each other and cause the glass to break. (Pyrex and ceramics have lower coefficients of expansion, so they can go from the frig to oven.)

Or knowing that cans of fluid explode in the freezer because water expands below 34 degrees F?

The clickety clack of the older railroad tracks comes from the breaks in the tracks to allow for thermal expansion.

Most thermostats still work on the basis of bimetallic strips, where the difference in the coefficients of the thermal expansion cause the strips to change curvature with temperature.

It wasn't possible to design accurate chronometers until we learned how to use bimetallic strips to compensate for the changes in pendulum length, etc. with temperature.

It wasn't possible to make reliable seals between glass and metal until we found suitable metals - ones with a coefficient that wasn't too different from glass. (The early attempts had the hot/cold cycles breaking the glass metal bonds.) This meant light bulbs.

Even in ancient times, they knew about the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion of different materials. In The Odyessy, one of Penelope's suitor tries to bend Odysseus' bow, finds he isn't strong enough, and starts warming the bow by the fire so the that differential expansion of the horn (compression) and tendon (tension) sides of the bow would change the curvature and make the bow easier to draw.