Nitrogen, anyone?

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by Cabs

Sounds like it's worth a try. Can anyone think of any downsides? Now all you have to do is figure out where to get enough Nitrogen to fill the tubes... any thoughts? I guess for a fire department that's probably not a big problem.

Welding supply place should have it.

jky

[Tomas]

A leak would become cause for celebration!

T

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by Cabs

Can anyone think of any downsides?

Won't the tubes get bent?







(Sorry... diving humour!)

[whiteminiman]

Nitrogen is used to inflate the tyres on all Formula One cars (and many other race cars) and also the tyres on aeroplanes.

It's physically larger than the other atoms that make up air, and so leaks out far less. I'm told that oxygen leaks out three times faster than nitrogen.

If you have access to enough, then it's worth a try... although I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make considering the relatively large volumes and low pressures compared to the applications that it's usually used for.

[Action Man]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Won't the tubes get bent?







(Sorry... diving humour!)

LMFAO well done

[Polwart]

Originally Posted by whiteminiman

It's physically larger than the other atoms that make up air, and so leaks out far less. I'm told that oxygen leaks out three times faster than nitrogen.

Nitrogen atoms are marginally larger than oxygen atoms (although there isn't much in it). However the air is made up from Nitrogen and oxygen molecules not atoms (plus water, co2 and traces of other stuff!). A nitrogen molecule (N2) is smaller than an oxygen molecule (O2) - largely due to the relative strength/length of N-N and O-O bonds.

If your hypothesis were true then the N2/O2 ratio of a tube/tyre filled with air would change over time. In effect if you inflated the tyre/tube until it started to go flat then topped it up - and repeated it would eventually end up with so much nitrogen that it wouldn't go flat any more - which is not the case.

The theory about water vapour seems much more logical.