Quote:
Originally Posted by CapriRacer
And I'm going to try to answer the other question: Does the use of helium change any interesting tire characteristics?
I think the answer is "No!" Whatever the inflation medium is (short of something corrosive to rubber), it would have little effect in the way a tire operates. The only thing that might have an effect is thermal conductivity - and for an inflation medium, conducting heat away from the tire and into the rest of the air chamber is a fraction of the heat loss, and likely wouldn't have a large affect on the overall heat loss.
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Actually helium being a monatomic gas will increase the bounciness of a tire. Also the lower mass of helium will allow the tire tread to deflect and rebound quicker as it will have less inertia. These two effects will reduce the rolling resistance slightly.