At certain temperature, rod A and $\operatorname{rod} \mathrm{B}$ of different materials have lengths $L_A$…

At certain temperature, rod A and $\operatorname{rod} \mathrm{B}$ of different materials have lengths $L_A$ and $L_B$ respectively. Their co-efficients of linear expansion are $\alpha_A$ and $\alpha_B$ respectively. It is observed that the difference between their lengths remain constant at all temperatures. The ratio $L_A / L_B$ is given by
  1. $\frac{\alpha_A}{\alpha_B}$
  2. $\frac{\alpha_B}{\alpha_A}$
  3. $\frac{\alpha_A+\alpha_B}{\alpha_A}$
  4. $\frac{\alpha_A+\alpha_B}{\alpha_B}$

Solution

\(L_B^{\prime}=L_B\left(1+\alpha_B \Delta \theta\right)\) and \(L_A^{\prime}=L_A\left(1+\alpha_B \Delta \theta\right)\). So that \(L_B^{\prime}-L_A^{\prime}=L_B-L_S+\left(L_B \alpha_B-L_A \alpha_A\right) \Delta \theta\) So \(\left(L_B^{\prime}-L_A^{\prime}\right)\) will be equal to \(\left(L_B-L_A\right)\) at all temperature if, \(L_B \alpha_B-L_A \alpha_A=0\) \([\operatorname{as} \Delta \theta \neq 0] \text { or } \frac{L_B}{L_A}=\frac{\alpha_{A}}{\alpha_B}\) i.e., the difference in the lengths of the two rods will be independent of temperature if the lengths are in the inverse ratio of their coefficients of linear expansion.

Asked in: MHT CET 2024 (16 May Shift 2)

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