The tires of a car support the weight of a stationary car. If one tire has a slow leak, the air pressure within the tire will _______ with time, the surface area between the tire and the road will ________ with time, and the net force the tire exerts on the road will ___________ with time.
i know it decrease,increase and remain constant but can someone tell me why it remain constant please.
reduce, increase, constant
To understand why the net force the tire exerts on the road remains constant, let's break it down.
The air pressure within the tire will indeed decrease with time because of the slow leak. As the air leaks out, the pressure decreases due to the reduced number of air molecules inside the tire.
When the surface area between the tire and the road increases, it means that more of the tire is in contact with the road. This increased contact area redistributes the weight of the car over a larger surface, which results in a decrease in the pressure applied by the tire on the road.
Now, despite the decrease in air pressure and the increase in contact area, the net force the tire exerts on the road remains constant. Why is that?
The reason is that the decrease in air pressure and the increase in contact area directly affect each other. When the air pressure decreases, the tire becomes slightly flatter and expands outward to compensate for the lost pressure. This expansion increases the surface area of the tire in contact with the road.
The increase in contact area then redistributes the weight of the car over the larger surface, resulting in a decrease in pressure. But, as mentioned earlier, the decrease in pressure causes the tire to flatten more, which increases the contact area again. This cycle continues until the pressure and contact area reach an equilibrium point.
At this equilibrium point, the decrease in air pressure and the increase in contact area balance each other out, and the net force the tire exerts on the road remains constant. This is why, even with a slow leak, the net force exerted by the tire on the road does not change over time.