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Does metal expand when cold?

Updated: 5/22/2024
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Wiki User

14y ago

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Baring some curious complication, heat expands all things. When you put heat into something, it gains some of that energy. If you had warm hands and you gripped a metal rod, the metal rod would slowly heat up, it takes the heat energy from you.

On the smallest scale, heat means a material is moving around and energetic. In a cold gas, the molecules are moving around quite slowly, they have so little energy. Put energy (heat) into the gas and they will speed up and become very active...and even the gas will expand, like with a hot air balloon. (Try freezing an inflated balloon, note how it deflates a bit but re-expands when you warm it in the open air)

So metal is no different, really. The difference is small...and perhaps unnoticeable most of the time. But rest assured, the metal expands slightly due to heat.

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Wiki User

14y ago
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AnswerBot

1mo ago

No, metal contracts when it is cooled. This is due to the decrease in kinetic energy of the metal atoms, causing them to move closer together and resulting in a decrease in the overall volume of the metal.

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Wiki User

14y ago

No, metal expands when it is heated as the particles move further apart. In fact metal will contract when cold.

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Wiki User

14y ago

No metal in the world expands when it's cold. I only can think of one thing that expands or gets more dense when colder and that's Bose Einstein Condensate.

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Safe Pancake

Lvl 1
2y ago
gallium will expand when cooled from its liquid form by 3.1% i believe

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Wiki User

13y ago

Metal expands when warmed and contracts when chilled.

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