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A comment on Large crack in East African Rift is evidence of continent splitting in two. Parent comment

Re:Large crack in East African Rift is evidence of continent... by avz on Wednesday April 04, 2018 @04:22PM (#16758644)
> Unless the cable had absolutely no temperature expansion...

One might be able to get a composite with very close to zero thermal expansion coefficient by linking stages made of materials with positive and negative [1] coefficients.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_thermal_expansion

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Re:Large crack in East African Rift is evidence of continent... by jmharvey on Thursday April 05, 2018 @12:44AM (#16761837)
You don't even need to use exotic materials with negative thermal expansion: instead, you can use a combination of materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion pointed in opposite directions. This was one of the innovations that John Harrison made that allowed him to make precision timepieces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridiron_pendulum

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