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Environment
Nitrogen Claims Tiresome, Sports Stars for Health, Daylight Saving Time Dilemma
by David J. Hanson
November 14, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 46
Nitrogen claims tiresome
The claims of significant benefits from filling your car's tires with nitrogen instead of plain old air continue to fill the airways. Two alert readers have sent us a short piece aired recently by the local NBC affiliate in Philadelphia on Costco Tire Service Centers advocating nitrogen fill-ups for tires.
Although Newscripts has been covering the nitrogen story for more than a year (C&EN, Oct, 25, 2004, page 88), it remains intriguing what people are saying about this practice.
Nitrogen is four times heavier than oxygen, so those molecules are bigger and won't be able to escape through the small leaks in your tires, claims a representative of the American Automobile Association with a straight face.
The nitrogen use yields several supposed benefits. Your tires stay inflated longer because nitrogen is very dry, and there will be less pressure fluctuation than you get with oxygen, it is claimed. And the moisture in oxygen not only expands and contracts, it can also prematurely corrode your tires, NBC warns.
While water vapor might build up in a tire from filling it with moisture-laden air, the water should escape from tiny leaks just like any gas. Also, of the many tires that this writer has had to buy for many cars over the years, not one has ever had to be replaced because of corrosion of the tire from the inside out.
Sports stars for health
Those thin bracelets and necklaces you may have seen Major League Baseball players wearing last season are more than simple decoration. Some of them may actually be improving the athlete's performance. As described in an ad submitted by ACS member Joe Leginus, these items are heartily endorsed by New York Yankee pitcher Randy Johnson. They are also worn by a number of other baseball players, golfer Ernie Els, and assorted other celebrities.
The manufacturer of these devices, Phiten, headquartered in Japan, makes a variety of products enhanced with aqua titanium, and they are apparently very big sellers in Asia. The technology is described by the company as a water-soluble titanium generated by binding water and titanium. Titanium is supposedly absorbed just like a dye into the fiber used to make the necklaces. Its core is also said to contain micro-sized titanium balls, as well as carbonized titanium. Aqua titanium is said to work by generating positive and negative ions in your body that allow your blood to flow better, increasing circulation. The result of this is relief of pain and stiffness in areas where the material is worn, such as the wrist and arm, as well as a general reduction in fatigue and stress.
As Liginus quips, This must be the secret of Johnson's 95-mph fastball.
Daylight saving time dilemma
The signing of energy legislation by President George W. Bush has created a situation that could wreak some havoc in 2007. The new law changes the dates for daylight saving time.
The change brings to mind the tragicomedy of five years ago when it was feared that computers would crash because they could not handle the numerical change from the year 1999 to 2000.
Congress, in its wisdom, stipulated in the energy law that daylight time will start three weeks earlier and will end a week later, ostensibly as an energy-saving measure. But the immediate impact most people will have is that their computers, VCRs, cell phone companies, and other electronics with software that preprograms the time changes will be wrong.
Experts quickly have pointed out that this is not the same level of crisis we had in 2000, but it could be inconvenient. For example, cell phone companies base charges on the time of day that a call is made, and some electric utilities have advanced meters that adjust rates based on peak and nonpeak hours of use. But some corrections are expected to be easy.
Computers that use Microsoft programs will probably get an update to correct the dates. Some cell phones receive their time signals from an Internet or radio signal, and fancy digital clocks automatically adjust to the atomic clock at the National Institute of Standards & Technology.
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