It is important that you check your tire pressure when the weather changes to colder or warmer temperatures. To illustrate this concept I have filled a bike tire to 40 psi at room temperature of 71.2 degrees Fahrenheit. I then placed the tire outside for a little over an hour. The outside temperature was 11.1 degrees Fahrenheit. What will happen to the tire pressure and what will the tire pressure be?
Now lets use the equation pressure times volume equals mass times gas constant times temperature to find what will happen to the pressure of this tire once placed outside.
We can divide the out door equation by the indoor equation.
We notice that the volume mass and gas constant don’t change so we can eliminate them.
We are left with pressure and temperature.
Rearranging the formula we get pressure indoor times temperature outdoor over temperature indoor equals pressure outdoor.
We can now plug in our numbers. Be sure to keep your temperature in absolute temperature by using degrees rankin or kelvin and your pressure in absolute pressure by adding atmospheric pressure
After pluging in all of our numbers we get that the outdoor pressure should be 33.81. Looking at our bicycle pump gauge this is very close to our experimental outdoor pressure.
Now your probably asking what will low pressure do to your vehicle. Well it will reduce your fuel economy and will cause premature wear on your tires just to name a few negative issues.
Disclaimer
These videos are intended for educational purposes only (students trying to pass a class) If you design or build something based off of these videos you do so at your own risk. I am not a professional engineer and this should not be considered engineering advice. Consult an engineer if you feel you may put someone at risk.
