3/14/2019 A certain steel railroad rail is 13 yd in length and weighs 82.4 lb/yd.

82.4 lb/yd. How much thermal energy is required to increase the length of such a…

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A certain steel railroad rail is 13 yd in length and
weighs 82.4 lb/yd. How much thermal energy...

Question:
A certain steel railroad rail is 13 yd in length and weighs 82.4 lb/yd. How much thermal energy is required to increase
the length of such a rail by 3.2 mm? Assume the steel has the same speci c heat as iron. (Take the average coe cient
of linear expansion for steel near room temperature to be 11 × 10−6  (∘ C)−1 .

 Answer and Explanation:

Given :
Length of the steel railroad L = 13 yd = 13 × 0.9144m = 11.8872 m

82 × 0.453592kg
Mass per unit length of the steel railroad  mL = 82.4lb/yd = = 40.676kg/m
0.9144 m

Extension in the rod   ΔL

−3
= 3.2 mm = 3.2 × 10 m

Temperature coe cient of the linear expansion of steel   α

−6 o
= 11 × 10 / C

Speci c heat capacity of the steel   csteel = 502.416J /kg C

o

Let's rst determine the change in the temperature that causes extension in the rod. It is determined by the following
equation;

ΔL = L α ΔT

Plugging in the given values of the L, α and ΔL in the above equation, we get;
−3 −6 o
3.2 × 10 m = 11.8872 m × 11 × 10 / C × ΔT

o
ΔT = 24.47 C

Now;

We will determine mass of the rod.

Mass of the rod = mass per unit length  ×  length of the rod 

m = mL × L

Plugging in values of the L and mL in the above equation, we get;

Mass of the rod   m = 40.676kg/m × 11.8872m = 483.52 kg

Now;

We will use speci c heat capacity equation to determine the required heat to increase the length of the rod.

ΔQ = m c ΔT

Plugging in values of the m , csteel and ΔT in the above equation, we get;

o o
ΔQ = 483.52 kg × 502.416J /kg C × 24.47 C

6
ΔQ = 5.94 × 10  J

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