Understanding Thermal Expansion: Effects of Cutting and Heating Metal Sheets

[Dell]

if i have a metal sheet and i cut a hole in its center, and heat the sheet, will the hole grow larger or smaller?? (knowing that the material has a positive therml expansion)?

i know that the metal wants to expand, but in which direction,
??
i would think it would grow smaller but that's just intuition. can someone please explain this to me

 

[Lok]

It will get larger as the expansion is uniform and to the outside. Think of it as a ring with a ring around it and so on to about 100 rings. if you heat them up they will all expand and grow in size and their connections ( the surface where 2 of them touch) will not be broken.

 

[Blueshift5]

I can provide an explanation for the effects of cutting and heating metal sheets on their thermal expansion. It is important to understand that thermal expansion is a property of materials where they expand or contract in response to changes in temperature. In the case of metal sheets, they have a positive thermal expansion coefficient, which means that as they are heated, their dimensions increase.

Now, when a hole is cut in the center of a metal sheet and it is heated, the surrounding metal will expand due to the increase in temperature. However, the metal in the area of the hole is constrained by the edges of the hole and cannot expand freely. This results in a decrease in the size of the hole, making it smaller.

To understand this concept better, imagine a rubber band. When you stretch a rubber band, it becomes longer and thinner. Similarly, when you heat a metal sheet, it expands in all directions, including the direction of the hole. However, since the edges of the hole act as constraints, the metal cannot expand in that direction, causing the hole to shrink.

In summary, the hole in the metal sheet will grow smaller when it is heated because of the positive thermal expansion coefficient of the metal and the constraints imposed by the edges of the hole. I hope this explanation helps to clarify your understanding of thermal expansion in metal sheets.