Nitrogen - $5 a tire

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Didn't you ever "Short stick" them when checking the oil? You'd slip the dip stick between your index and second finger, insert it into the tube until it contacted your fingers. You'd then show them the stick that "indicated" the crankcase was a quart low. After they told you that "You better add one," you put the metal pout spout into an empty can, put it into the add oil hole, wait about a half a minute, remove it, and charge them for a quart of oil.

'til one night some woman's husband came and beat the crap out of you and got the $2.00 back.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Maybe that's why we have self-service in much of western Europe.

DAS

...drop an antacid tablet into one of the battery cells? ...cut a fan belt almost all the way through or poke a hole in a radiator hose while "checking the oil"?

And people wonder why full-serve no longer exists (only self-serve and we-serve).

I'm in favour of an idiocy tax.

Waste of money. It is pretty simple to check your tires for proper pressure. It also means you will actually look at your tires and spot problems that could get worse, like uneven wear.

-------------- Alex

when they put in air, it is 78% nitrogen already

However the volume inside a tire can and does expand as pressure increases, so this needs to be accounted for in a strict interpretation of the Law relative to tires.

That's why Government lotteries exist.

No - volume goes *down* as pressure increses. (I know - you meant to say as *temperature* increases, and more correctly, with an essentially constrained volume, as in a tire, pressure increases as temperature increase.)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Ha! Good one!

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

He means the volume of the tire, not the volume of an ideal gas. As you increase the pressure inside a tire, it will expand, albeit only slightly, and its inside volume will increase.

Matt

Yeah - I realized that as a possibility after I posted. But this thread is old and lost on my reader, so wasn't sure of the context of the point being made.

OK - I just went back to the thread on Google. He was just making a technical point that, although true, has no practical relationship to the issue. There are always going to be 2nd, 3rd, etc. order effects that can be ignored for the practical discussion - this is one of those.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Heh... the air we breathe is 78% nitrogen but... I bet if you told the average dope on the street "my god, terrorists just sprayed nitrogen into the air!!!" they would all start choking...

What's even worse is dihyrogen-monoxide. If you inhale it, you die, and our lakes and streams are loaded with it.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Only if it is in the liquid or solid state. As a gas or aerosol, etc., it is benign. :-)

Matt

About 5 years ago here in Kansas City one of the local morning radio goofballs announced on April Fools Day that dihydrogen monoxide had been detected in the water supply of several local municipalities. A lot of people went into a tizzy, and some of the politicians and bureaucrats fell for it. They were concerned that it may have been a result of sabatoge by terrorists, so to be safe they called the state officials. The prank didn't go on for too long, because a few people figured out what dihydrogen monoxide was. The radio guy was sternly reprimanded, but his only crime was in pointing out the stupidity of our public servants.

Matt Whit>

Yep - and the city council of ALISO VIEJO, California almost banned styrofoam drinking cups at city sporting events because of reading a hoax web site on the subject saying that this awful chemical, dihydrogen-monoxide, was used in the manufacture of styrofoam and residue of the substance remained in the finished product:

They really aren't very bright - a quote from the end of the first article: "The measure has been pulled from the agenda, although Norman said the city may still eventually ban foam cups. 'If you get Styrofoam into the water and it breaks apart, it's virtually impossible to clean up,' Norman said."

A fun read:

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')