Saturday, November 15, 2008

If car Tyres were filled with helium would it save fuel?

If the car weighed less it would use less fuel so in the long term would filling the tyres with Helium save fuel?
Absolutely not, besides a myriad of other reasons it wouldn't work, the main one is that the amount of helium necessary to create any lift is far more than could be put into a realistically sized tire. a vehicle is very heavy and also in order for a tire to be useable it must be made of sturdy yet flexible material which makes it heavy. Think of it this way, if you were to remove a typical tire and wheel and fill it to bursting with helium it still would achieve not even the slightest lift and thereby no weight reduction.

Hydrogen is half the weight of helium, so would save even more fuel. Problem is both are also very small atoms compared to the usual components of air in tires. A helium balloon deflates because the helium atoms are able to squeeze through the microscopic holes in the rubber of a balloon. Same would be true of a tire.

Haven´t you heard about the world wide shortage of helium? Prices are sky rocketing. Children´s parties will never be the same for the next generation because of our wastefulness and greed. The Goodyear blimp is a helium guzzler! Boycott Goodyear tyres (tires)!

No. The cost of helium would probably outweigh the savings. Nitrogen, on the other hand, is the way to go. FYI to the ignorants: Not everybody is from the U.S., and some strange cultures outside of the U.S. (like that exotic group of people in a country called England) spell it T-Y-R-E.

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