Originally Posted by Whaazup17
I am doing some research on air (for tires)
I know about nitrogen but I did some research and I think nitrogen is heavier than air. Then I thought about helium I found out it is extracted from natural gas (hope it isn't still flammable) but do you think it will expand? And is my theory right?
I think that kid that had the funny quote in his textbook is a chemistry major, I took Chem 1&2 in college, so maybe he can back up what I know.
I think chlorine gas is the only other element (other than oxygen) that supports combustion, unless your tires are made of Titanium, which will burn in a nitrogen enviroment. SO you don't need to worry about that.
And as nitrogen is bounded by the ideal gas law, its pressure and volume will fluctuate with temperature variances, but no more than atmospheric air.
You are looking for diatomic dry nitrogen, which is devoid of moisture that will keep from going from a liquid to boiling off into a gaseous state inside a tire that heats up. Oxygen is slighty corrosive at higher temps too, but a lot of this information comes from the F1 data I love, so your tires may never see those temps.