gas mileage
There is a spreading belief that if you put Nitrogen (instead of regular air) in your car tires, that you will get better gas mileage. The reasoning behind this may be sound, but the facts on which the reasoning is based are not correct. Therefore, the answer is no, it is not advantageous for the average person to use Nitrogen in their car tires. On even more detailed examination, it maybe that regular air is better than Nitrogen for most people. Nitrogen is in fact used in certain tires, and there may be a good reason for that, though the information I have is probably missing something…
First: Car Talk is awesome. I wish I could come up with some class activities that help students become as good at trouble shooting and critical thinking as Tom and Ray are. Anyway, they are quite entertaining.
So, my Dad called and told me he heard a discussion on Car Talk about the effect DC to AC converters and accessories plugged in to it and how they would effect gas mileage. I skimmed through the last Car Talk podcast, but couldn't find it. He must have heard a re-run on the radio or something (he doesn't really believe in podcasts). Let me calculate the effect a number of things…