Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainsam
I was typing up the reason airplanes, race cars and even some heavy equipment go to great expanse to use nitrogen in their tires. Its because they know its a benefit. It may not be a benefit to RVers or even the family car buts thats all up to you.
After I read a couple of your responses I decided I didn't care to go to the effort.
|
The reason nitrogen (N) is used in tires is because it is dry (no water vapor). Nitrogen and oxygen are side by side in the periodic table so their atomic weights and sizes are nearly the same. Since both nitrogen and oxygen in tires are found as gaseous molecules of N2 and O2, the size of the N2 molecule is 300 pm (picometer) and the O2 molecule is 292 pm, the size difference is about 3%
Compressed nitrogen is a by product of producing liquid oxygen, so it is readily available. The expansion rate for water vapor is about 0.8 times per 10 degrees C. The expansion rate for nitrogen gas is 0.1 times per 10 degrees C.
So dry air is just a good as dry nitrogen for most tires.