-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Tarara
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 9:29 AM
To: phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
Subject: [Phys-l] Another tire question
How does a tire actually hold up a car?
=========================================
"Paging All Physicists!
This week on Car Talk we talked with Amy in Louisville. She and her dad
have been discussing a profound automotive physics conundrum.
Specifically: Why doesn't a car's tire pressure change when it's lifted
off the ground? Amy's dad thinks it should because you're taking 3,000
pounds of weight off the tires, and "un-scrunching" them. Yet, his
trusty tire gauge isn't measuring any change. We weren't afraid to wade
in with an answer, and got a little help from our pal Wolfgang. His
credentials? A lot more than ours. He's a physicist at the World's
Greatest University, just down the street from Car Talk Plaza in Our
Fair City.
But what do you think? Did Wolfgang (and we) have it right.... or would
you like to go mano-a-mano with someone in a white lab coat at a
lectern?
Share your thoughts here. And, trust us, we'll love watching this little
discussion develop!
Yours in hot air, no matter what the pressure,
Tom and Ray
Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers"