to patch or...

[Orin Eman]

> l.leung at juno.com wrote:
> 
> >It works exceeding well. Only in extreme conditions (like there being no
> >internal air pressure, or exceeding stiff sidewalls such as trailer
> >tires) does this begin to be a little less proportional.
> 
> So, to paraphrase: It works exceedingly well, except when it doesn't work

Just like most laws in physics...  Really, it works for any tire
pressure you would want to run.

> then he wrote:
> >It's a
> >straightforward application of physics.
> 
> If physics was enough to build something, the engineers wouldn't 
> study other applicable/practical disciplines and wouldn't need to 
> experiment a lot; not to mention that all tires would be made of more 
> or less the same material, so one company would hire chemistry 
> specialists, the rest - industrial spies :-)

And that isn't the case?  Well, no, they are all doing their research
(and perhaps all hiring spies).  But the research is how to make
best use of the contact patch that they have and its shape, not its area,
which still depends mostly on the tire pressure.

Orin.