Tire Ridges

I pumped the tires on my 4 year old C’s bike up the other week. One day after dropping my 6 year old daughter at kindergarten, I was asking C if he noticed any difference in riding his bike. He said no.

I was surprised because his tires were pretty flat before. I thought that after pumping it up, he would notice that he could go so much faster. When I pointed out that it should be easier to go faster on pumped up tires, he started to notice. He asked me why that was the case and I told him it was because there is less friction on pumped up tires since there is less tire surface area rubbing against the road.

I gave an example of mountain bikes vs. road bikes. Mountain bikes have thicker tires and road bikes have thinner tires. I asked C which one he thought went faster and he said mountain bikes at first. After explaining the concept to him again about friction, he correctly said road bikes were faster because of thinner tires.

C then began to wonder how tires grip the snow. Thick or thin tires didn’t help in his mind, so he asked me how it worked. I explained that snow tires have deeper and more ridges (I hope that’s right!), and those ridges helped grip onto the snow to move forward. They can catch loose snow too and not get trapped by it, so the ridges matter. This concept he got quickly and the next car we went past that was parked, C stopped to examine the tires. He stated there were lots of ridges.

Over the next few days, he pointed out the ridges to me on the tires he saw. He gets excited to learn new things and form a better understanding of the world around him. He especially likes to apply what he learned and show others. I’m glad I can teach C a thing or two and I’m also glad it brings him a lot of joy to learn.