Discussion of the Question 09/96
The question was:A car participates in a race. Its tire explodes. What should be the the speed of the car, so that the tire does not become "flat"?
Ryan Werstuik (sniper@nauticom.net) suggested (3/30/97) that in order to prevent deflation of the tire one needs to achieve the speed at which "there will not be enough time while the wheel is off the ground for any air to escape". He did not provide a detailed calculation but estimated that the speed will be close to the speed of sound.
Y.K.: It seems to me that the excess air will escape the tire at any speed, and that we do not really need to maintain air-pressure inside the wheel in order to prevent flat tire. Keep in mind that there are "centrifugal" forces acting on the tire...
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