A concrete highway is built of slabs 12 m long .How wide should be the expansion cracks between the slabs at 15 Celsius to prevent buckling if the range of temperature is -30 to 50 Celsius?

Explanation:

Given:

Change in length due to temperature can be  given as:

Now at temperature 15°C:

Hence the expansion crack between the slabs at this temperature must be:

speed of light in vacuum is 300,000 km/s

speed of light in other mediums is given by the expression v = c/n, where c is the speed of light in vacuum and n is the refractive index of medium.

for the first medium v = 200,000 km/s

  so, refractive index of medium = 300000/200000 = 1.5

    1.5 refractive index is usually for glass. so first medium is glass.

for the second medium v = 250,00 km/s

so, refractive index of medium = 300000/250000 = 1.2

    1.2 refractive index is usually for water. so second medium is water.

for the third medium v = 0 km/s

so, refractive index of medium = 300000/0 = ∞

    ∞ refractive index is usually for opaque mediums. so third medium is opaque medium.