My partner has been asking me how tires spin (specifically on cars) and I don’t know how to answer. How do they spin without coming loose? How do they understand the speed you want them to go?
Thanks in advance!!
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They are bolted on the axle, I’d recommend watching some YouTube videos explaining the physics of cars
Tires don’t become loose because the pressure between the sidewall of the tire and the rim is literally an air tight fit. Then throw in internal pressure pushing on that bead and you e got a nice snug fit (although in instances of extreme power the friction between the ground and that bead on the rim becomes too great and the rim will spin leaving the tire behind.)
The tires know how fast to go because there are gears inside the transmission that take power from the engine and by changing ratios attain higher and higher speed. There are sensors in the transmission and each wheel that make sure everything is working as designed so you know how fast you’re going at any given time.
How do they spin without coming loose?
Tire air is pushing the tire outward but the rim keeps it there, and that forms a seal.
How do they know what speed to go?
The engine spins and that is connected to the rims that hold the tire on, since they are connected, when you press the gas pedal the engine spins faster and so does the tires.
Wheels spin on bearings. Remember fidget spinners? The “spinny” parts of those are small wheel bearings, like for skateboard wheels.
It’s the same concept on a car, just bigger, and the shape of the bearings are a little different.
I don’t understand what you’re asking. Just off the top of my head it could be three different things.
1. How does the engine make the tires spin
2. How do the tires spin on the axle
3. How do they spin without coming off the wheel
I’ll answer the second question cause I don’t really understand the first.
There’s a sensor that detects how fast the wheels are spinning and uses that plus the knowledge of the wheel diameter to tell you your speed. If you replace your wheels and have a smaller or larger diameter, you will need to have your speedometer recalibrated or else it will no longer be accurate. Even well worn tires will result in the speedometer being off, though not by a lot, unless your tires had a huge amount of tread and it’s all been worn away.
Basically due to friction and Newton’s Third Law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). Your car’s engine is trying to push the car forwards, this causes the planet to push back against the car.
The planet can only do this where it is in contact with the car, which is the wheel. You can simulate this by holding something like a pen extremely loosely with the tips of your fingers of one hand and use the palm of the other to slide under the pen. See how it rolls in the opposite direction to how your hand is moving? That’s the same principle behind how the wheels roll forwards while the planet is pushing them backwards.
Your speed is affected by how hard the engine is working so how hard it tries to move forward, affecting how hard the Earth pushes back.
they “understand” the right speed because that’s how fast the engine is spinning, which is because (simplified) of how much gas you give it through the gas pedal. In an electric car, the “gas” pedal is just an electric sensor, which sends a signal to some computer chip in there to tell the battery to give the electric motor more power.
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