Arailroad track has small gaps between sections of, metal rails . why are those gaps needed?

The railway engineers always leave a small gap between two rails  to compensate for the expansion of the rails

Because all metal expands when heated. If two railway tracks were to be laid together without any gap they will push against each other when they expand in the day. (This is because of the heat of the sun.) When they cool down at night they will contract against each other and return to their original state pulling against each other. The constant pushing and pulling, due to the change of temperature, will cause the joints between the tracks to weaken. They may also break free from one another, causing derailments of trains, and loss of lives. 

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Uh whats the

The whale was a missile blasting from beneath the surface.  2.) a majestic whale leapt skyward before diving back into the sea.    these are both figurative language. this is so because the whale in sentence "1" was not actually a missile, nor was it actually blasting. now, for sentence "2", a whale can not actually "leap".