A steel aircraft carrier is 361 m long when moving through the icy North Atlantic at a temperature of 1.7° C. By how much does the carrier lengthen when it is traveling in the warm Mediterranean Sea at a temperature of 16° C?

Answer 1

deltaL = (361 m)*alpha*(16 - 1.7)

"alpha" is the coefficient of linear expansion for steel.
alpha = 13*10^-6 (deg C)^-1

deltaL = .0672 m = 6.7 cm