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thermal expansion
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tendency of matter to change volume in response to a change in temperature
Thermal expansion is the tendency of materials to take up more space when they get hotter and less space when they get cooler. This matters because it can affect how things fit together, how they function, and how they're designed—for example, engineers have to account for expansion and contraction when building bridges, pipelines, and other structures.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
~33 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Expansion joint in a road bridge used to avoid damage from thermal expansion.
System properties
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “thermal expansion” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.