If you remember your high school geometry, have a calculator with a square root function handy, and know that there are 5,280 feet in a mile and 12 inches in a foot, you can solve this problem. But suppose instead you have to use your intuition. What is your guess? Most people figure that since the tracks expanded by an inch they should go up by roughly the same amount, or maybe as much as two or three inches. The actual answer is 29.7 feet! How did you do?
