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Question from Adolfo:

What is the formula for calculating the outside surface area of a U shaped tube?

It turns out to be exactly the same as for a straight tube that is as long as the line up the center of the U tube (or the line where, if you lay the tube flat on the floor, the floor touches the tube; or the average of the inner and outer lengths.)

Moreover, the volumes are also the same.

And this holds for any tube assembled from straight and circularly-curved segments.

RD

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