PDA

View Full Version : wheels w/tires ~ lighter w/ or w/o air?



Blink21Me
12-29-2008, 12:48 PM
Does anyone happen to actually know if wheels with tires would weigh less if they're deflated or inflated??? thanks.

Chick
12-29-2008, 12:53 PM
Basic physics. Air does have weight, which is why it stays at ground level rather than floating away, leaving billions of suffering masses here on terra firma. So the answer is, yes, full tires weigh more than empty. Just not very much. Why do you ask?

Critter7r
12-29-2008, 01:31 PM
They'd weigh less if you filled them with helium. And they'd be cheaper to ship, if that's where you're going with this.

M62pwrdE38
12-29-2008, 02:08 PM
They'd weigh less if you filled them with helium. And they'd be cheaper to ship, if that's where you're going with this.

And the person receiving them can suck the helium out and make their voice sound funny. Its win win!

Blink21Me
12-29-2008, 02:17 PM
Yeah I'm looking to ship :D . Unless they're at least 5 lbs lighter they won't be worth it...

Sammyzuko
12-29-2008, 02:50 PM
Yeah I'm looking to ship :D . Unless they're at least 5 lbs lighter they won't be worth it...

Wow....times are tight, eh.

GH41
12-29-2008, 04:31 PM
I feel almost as foolish answering this as you should feel for asking the question! If you remember nothing else in life remember GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND!! The quote below is what I found using GOOGLE. GH

" I'm delivering this answer off the top of my head, since I don't have any hard information on the dimensions of a typical automobile tire, but I am using the following estimates:

Total weight of tire + wheel + air ~60 lbs = ~30 kg
Inside diameter of tire 15" = ~40 cm = 4 dm
Outside diameter of tire (actually the space inside the tire) 21" = ~50 cm = 5 dm
Width of wheel 6" = ~15 cm = 1.5 dm
Pressure inside the tire 30 psi = ~ 2 bar (that is, twice "standard" pressure)
Temperature 25° C ("standard" temperature)
(I'm using dm = decimeters for length because I want to measure volume in liters, that is, cubic decimeters.)

Air, at "standard temperature and pressure" (STP), has a molar volume of 22.4 liters and an average molar mass of 29 grams, that is, one mole of air masses 29 grams and takes up 22.4 liters at STP. Since we're estimating a pressure of twice "standard," the volume of 29 grams of air will be only 11.2 liters.
To get the mass of air, we need the volume inside the tire. For that we use the volume difference between two cylinders, one representing the wheel and the other representing the tire mounted on the wheel. The volume of a cylinder is given by
V = p × radius<SUP>2</SUP> × height
Remember that radius is diameter ¸ 2. For the wheel, the volume is given by

p × (4 dm ¸ 2)<SUP>2</SUP> × 1.5 dm = 19 liters (cubic decimeters).
For the tire mounted on the wheel, the total volume is given by

p × (5 dm ¸ 2)<SUP>2</SUP> × 1.5 dm = 29 liters (cubic decimeters).
The volume difference is just 10 liters, which means that the air in the tire will mass about 26 grams, less than 0.1% of the total weight (30 kg = 30,000 g) we estimated for the tire + the wheel.

Because of buoyancy effects, the air will only weigh 13 grams, less than 0.05%! Also, the thickness of the tire is negligible for our purposes. If the tire is being shipped alone, though, the air in the package weighs <SMALL>NOTHING</SMALL>--because it's at the same pressure as the surrounding air. This is a buoyancy effect."
<TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left> (bergerd@bluffton.edu)</TD></TR><TR><TD align=left> (http://www.bluffton.edu/)</TD></TR><TR><TD align=left> (http://www.bluffton.edu/~bergerd)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


<!--END-->

Critter7r
12-29-2008, 04:53 PM
Well, no modern BMW has a tire with an overall diameter of just 21 inches. My 3 series, with wimpy 205/55/16 tires have an overall diameter of nearly 25 inches, and a width of 7 inches. Plus, for determining the interior volume of a mounted wheel and tire, it'd probably be more accruate to assume an "interior cylinder" of an inch or two less than the diameter of the rim, since inside of a rim is concave (see below).

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:tX6a4b43I2WzzM:http://www.sizes.com/home/images/WHEEL.gif (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sizes.com/home/images/WHEEL.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.sizes.com/home/automobile_wheels.htm&usg=__k1cpJLlFlxeKR_u2fn0k8OAcb94=&h=489&w=222&sz=8&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=tX6a4b43I2WzzM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=59&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwheel%2Bcross%2Bsection%26um%3D1%26hl %3Den%26sa%3DN)


Besides, if someone was really going to try this, I'm sure they'd think to pump the tire up to its max pressure of 44 psi (3 bar).

Try those numbers in your calculations...