[TR] Nitrogen in Tires

[John Young]

--- On Tue, 9/2/08, Dave1massey at cs.com <Dave1massey at cs.com> wrote:

> From: Dave1massey at cs.com <Dave1massey at cs.com>
> mark.jones at exxonmobil.com writes: 
> > and the nitrogen molecule is just a bit bigger than an
> > oxygen molecule.
> 
> Why do you say that?  The molecular weight of nitrogen is
> 14 whereas oxygen 
> is 16.  Since oxygen has a larger nuculas (the root word
> for "nukular") and 
> more electrons it sounds logical that nitrogen is actually
> larger.

It is actually smaller. The attraction of more electrons toward the nucleus make the nitrogen atom smaller than the oxygen atom.
> 
> Besides don't they both follow the ideal gas law?

At these conditions, yes. 
The only difference I can see that has not been mentioned so far is that the Nitrogen is DRY. Water vapor certainly does not follow the gas laws at these conditions and the water vapor may condense at ordinary temperatures and vaporise at higher ones, thus changing the pressure slightly. It seems to me that dry air would be just as good as dry Nitrogen.
> 
> Dave   

John Young