What are some examples of thermal expansion in

everyday life?
1. When you want to open a tight jar, it is recommended that you run it under hot
water. This expands the lid ever so slightly to relieve all the stress and friction and
the jar opens up easily.
2. Train tracks are put in pieces and you can notice a small gap between them. You
can hear that gap in the train’s rhythm. The gap is to make it easy for the tracks to
expand and contract without putting undue stress on each other.
Expansion joints on bridges and overpasses. The bridge deck gets longer in the heat of
summer and contracts in the cold of winter.

1. The behavior of gasoline on a hot day provides an example of liquid thermal

expansion in response to an increase in temperature. If car tank is filled and it left
to sit on the sun, then gasoline expand in volume.
2. The gas gauge on a car.People are much more likely to run out of gas in the
summer than the winter. Why is that? Well, the gas in your car expands, like
anything else, and changes the reading on your fuel gauge. In the summer, the gas
takes up more space in the tank, and so when it reads empty, there's significantly
less fuel left in the tank than in winter. Maybe you get an extra 35 miles after it hits
empty in the winter, but that won't be the case in the heat of summer. So, be
careful out there! Don't be the fool who has to walk three miles to the gas station
because they don't know about thermal expansion.