For a normal car riding on tires with relatively flexible sidewalls, the weight of the car is held up, in large measure, by the pressure of the air in the tires. If you look at one of your car’s tires, you’ll note that the tire is flattened slightly to make a rectangle where it touches the ground. The area of the resulting “contact patch” depends on the pressure in the tires. To a good approximation, the upward normal force of the ground (which we can assume is equal to ¼ of the car’s weight) on this patch of the tire is equal to the downward pressure force on the patch.a. Suppose you inflate your 2000 kg car’s tires to the recommended pressure, as measured by a gauge. The resulting contact patch is 18 cm wide and 12 cm long. What does the gauge read?b. If you let a bit of air out of your tire, what happens to the area of the contact patch?
For a normal car riding on tires with relatively flexible sidewalls, the weight of the car is held up, in large measure, by the pressure of the air in the tires. If you look at one of your car’s tires, you’ll note that the tire is flattened slightly to make a rectangle where it touches the ground. The area of the resulting “contact patch” depends on the pressure in the tires. To a good approximation, the upward normal force of the ground (which we can assume is equal to ¼ of the car’s weight) on this patch of the tire is equal to the downward pressure force on the patch.
a. Suppose you inflate your 2000 kg car’s tires to the recommended pressure, as measured by a gauge. The resulting contact patch is 18 cm wide and 12 cm long. What does the gauge read?
b. If you let a bit of air out of your tire, what happens to the area of the contact patch?
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