Deduce The Weight Of A Truck From Its Flat Tires

Four rubber tires of outer radius 0.5 m, inner radius 0.1 m, and width 0.2 m are inflated with air to a gauge pressure of 200 kPa. The tires are then attached to a truck and the truck is placed on the ground at sea level. The bottom of the tires very quickly squish by 5 centimeters but the tires retain their shape otherwise. What is the total mass of the truck and tires in kg ?

Details:
The acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m / s 2 -9.8~m/s^2 .
The truck's weight is distributed equally on all four tires.
Assume air is completely made up of O 2 O_2 and N 2 N_2 . (Hint: This information is necessary for this problem.)
Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 101.325 kPa.
You may neglect any 'surface tension' of the tires.


The answer is 11021.

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1 solution

Discussions for this problem are now closed

Anish Puthuraya
Mar 8, 2014

First of all, let us calculate the Initial Volume.

Note: I shall leave the geometrical calculations to the reader.

V 1 = π ( 0. 5 2 0. 1 2 ) × 0.2 = 0.15079 m 3 V_1 = \pi(0.5^2-0.1^2)\times 0.2 = 0.15079m^3

The change in volume is clearly the volume of the squisshed part (volume of the partial cylinder)

Δ V = A r e a × 0.2 = ( A s e c t o r A t r i a n g l e ) × 0.2 = 2.9363 × 1 0 3 m 3 \Delta V = Area\times 0.2 = (A_{sector}-A_{triangle})\times 0.2 = 2.9363\times 10^{-3}m^3

V 2 = V 1 Δ V = 0.14786 m 3 \Rightarrow V_2 = V_1 - \Delta V = 0.14786m^3

Now comes the key part.
Note that the problem mentions that the process is very fast.

Immediately, Adiabatic process comes into our mind.

P V γ = C o n s t a n t PV^\gamma = Constant

Also,
γ = f + 2 f \displaystyle\gamma = \frac{f+2}{f} , where f f is the degree of freedom

Since the gas is diatomic ( O 2 O_2 and N 2 N_2 ),
f = 5 f = 5

Thus,
γ = 7 5 \gamma = \frac{7}{5}

We also know,
Total Pressure = Gauge Pressure + Atmospheric Pressure

P 1 = 101.325 + 200 k P a = 301325 P a P_1 = 101.325 + 200 kPa = 301325Pa

Using all these values,
P 1 V 1 γ = P 2 V 2 γ P_1V_1^\gamma = P_2V_2^\gamma

P 2 = 309717.0563 P a \Rightarrow P_2 = 309717.0563Pa

Now,
The area on which this final pressure acts is,

A = 0.2 × 0. 5 2 0.4 5 2 = 0.0871779 m 2 A = 0.2\times \sqrt{0.5^2-0.45^2} = 0.0871779m^2

Thus,
F = P 2 A = 27000.50362 N F = P_2A = 27000.50362N

Since there are 4 tires,
F n e t = 4 F = 108002.0145 N F_{net} = 4F = 108002.0145N

Hence,
M t o t a l = F g = 11020.613 11021 K g M_{total} = \frac{F}{g} = 11020.613\approx\boxed{11021Kg}

why did u take it as adiabatic plz explain.......

alan alan - 7 years, 3 months ago

Nice problem!

Anderson Schroeder - 7 years, 3 months ago

There is a typo somewhere near the end...

CORRECTED STATEMENT:
The area on which this final pressure acts is,
A = 0.2 × 2 0. 5 2 0.4 5 2 = 0.0871779 m 2 A = 0.2\times 2\sqrt{0.5^2-0.45^2} = 0.0871779m^2

Anish Puthuraya - 7 years, 3 months ago

v nice

Naveed Khan - 7 years, 3 months ago

shouldn't the area on which the final pressure will act be multiplied by 2....?? i mean A=0.2 * 2 * √(0.5^2-0.45^2 )

Rupam Reza - 7 years, 2 months ago

Could anyone please explain me where I have gone wrong. I conserved energy between the initial and final states. I considered the entire truck as a system.I am not listing the equations obtained by me in detail but just giving a fair idea of what I have tried. Since the process is an adiabatic one we have:

Work done by all external forces=change in internal energy of system Thus Work done by gravity+Work done by external atmospheric pressure=change in internal energy of the gas

The work done by the gas is simply the atmospheric pressure multiplied by the the reduction in volume.I also used the adiabatic relation T V γ 1 = c o n s t a n t TV^{\gamma-1}=constant while calculating the change in internal energy of the gas. However I obtained a completely different answer. Please help! Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Karthik Kannan - 7 years, 3 months ago

Hi Karthik, it is a little hard to see where you've gone wrong. Can you describe your work in some more detail? For instance, is there a particular point where you stop agreeing with Anish's solution?

Josh Silverman Staff - 7 years, 3 months ago

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