A friendly overview of thermal effects on railways. 💡 Go to https://brilliant.org/PracticalEngineering for a 30-day free trial & the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription. 🚆 Watch the entire railway series here:    • Railway Engineering   Errata: At 9:00, the left column of calculations is incorrectly labeled "SI." It should be imperial. Whoops! Just as all materials have a mostly linear relationship between temperature change and length change, all materials also have a similar relationship between stress and change in length (often called strain). And this is part of the secret to continuous welded rail: restrained thermal expansion. You can overcome one with the other. Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/practical-engineering-why-railroads-dont-need-expansion-joints Signed copies of my book (plus other cool stuff) are available here: null Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos! CONNECT WITH ME ____________________________________ Website: http://practical.engineering/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HillhouseGrady Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/practicalengineering Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PracticalEngineering Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PracticalEngineerGrady​ Patreon: http://patreon.com/PracticalEngineering SPONSORSHIP INQUIRIES ____________________________________ Please email my agent at practicalengineering@standard.tv DISCLAIMER ____________________________________ This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. SPECIAL THANKS ____________________________________ This video is sponsored by Brilliant. Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Videoblocks. Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com/creator Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fBPdu8w9U Video by Grady Hillhouse Edited by Wesley Crump Produced by Ralph Crewe Graphics by Nebula Studios