Question

The height of the Washington Monument is measured to be 170 m on a day when its temperature is 35.0°C. What will the change in its height be on a day when its temperature falls to -11.0°C? Although the monument is made of limestone, take the thermal coefficient of expansion to be that of marble. The answer has to be in centimeters and I keep getting 9.384 cm for the change. I tried making it negitive to show that it decreased in size. please show all steps

Answer 1

we know, coefficient of linear expnansion of limestone, alfa = 8*10^-6 k^-1

so apply, delta_L = Lo*alfa*(T2-T1)

= 170*8*10^-6*(-11 - 35)

= -0.06256 m

= -6.256 cm