Frank Stewart writes a Bridge Column for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the 17 January 2001 edition, he included a Mathematics problem. The answer to the problem seems incredible to me, and I wonder if Frank misinterpreted his source or a typo crept into the paper. The problem is as follows
Imagine a 3000 mile long strip of metal laying flat. With the ends anchored, suppose the length expanded one inch. how high would the center of the strip rise due to the increase in length?
He claimed that it would rise 800 feet!!!

I did some calculations and came up with a very different answer, more in line with my intuition. It is, of course possible, that my analysis and/or computations are incorrect.

Have any of you encountered this problem? Can anybody come up with an answer of their own? I do not want to influence your thoughts by posting my analysis or numerical result.