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  • Driving down the road, my wheels started turning, I thoughtover 17 million cars are sold

  • every year, in every color imaginableso, why are the tires always black? Is it to match

  • the road? For that matter, why make the roads black?

  • Why not pink or green? The first roads were dirt paths (brown). When these got muddy and

  • impassable, people paved themwith gold! Gold straw that iscreating history’s

  • first road food! (if you were a horse). Later, pavement included shells, pebbles, and cobble

  • stones. You can still find cobbled streets todayblue ones in Puerto Rico and goldish

  • brown or amber in New York’s lower Manhattan. Why swap such beautiful colors for monotonous

  • black? To go with the tires? Today’s roads are usually made with a combination

  • of asphalt, bitumen, and other petroleum products —a durable mixture that melts easily and

  • spreads smoothly across a road’s surface. Andit’s naturally very dark. You can

  • make asphalt colorful, but it’s expensive! And it’s just going to get dirty. Why not

  • save that money to plant flowers in the divider? … you know, for color.

  • Still, the roads in Texas are sometimes a kind of clay red. That’s no accident: it’s

  • because those roads are made of aggregateor crushed up and mashed togetherrock. And

  • the rocks in Texas are kind of red (maybe theyre sunburned). I couldn’t find a

  • pink road anywhere, but if you know onemention it in the comments!

  • Ok, that explains black roads, but what’s with all the black tires? After all, wheels

  • weren’t always black. Chariot wheels could be shiny bronze. And donkey carts and covered

  • wagons had wooden wheelssometimes painted! The first tires were actually made of leatherthey

  • smoothed the ride, butunlike black leather jackets (which never go out of style and last

  • forever) — leather tires were undyed and wore out quickly.

  • If youve ever bumpety-bumped along in a vehicle with wooden wheels, you get why we

  • use rubber tires. When you get to the bottom of it, the shock absorption of rubber is a

  • huge improvement! But the rubber on those tires is naturally white! So, why are the

  • tires black? I mean, we let the axle retain its natural

  • silvery color. Probably, because axles need to be strong and you don’t make anyone nervous

  • by implying that your axle is anything other than steel. But why is it called an axle when

  • it isn’t an axe? You don’t cut down trees with your car. Axle comes from the Latin root,

  • axisand it means pivot or line. But, it doesn’t take a Latin road scholar

  • to notice that some tires have white wallswhere the natural rubber color is left alone, or

  • even brightened up, with zinc oxide. In fact, bright white was once standard for the whole

  • tirethat’s why chauffeurs in old movies are constantly polishing them: imagine trying

  • to keep white tires clean! But camouflaging dirt is not the reason manufacturers started

  • adding the chemical compound, “Carbon Black,” to their product. So why travel to opposite

  • end of the color spectrum all the way to black? We paint the bodies of cars, but usually one

  • solid color. Boooriiing! Older cars were often two toned. And I could go for a nice plaid

  • or leopard print. Why not stripes? Early car manufacturer, Henry Ford set the standard

  • when he said: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as

  • it is black.”

  • Are youtiredof all this tire talk? No? Okay, let’s continue

  • Exposed to the wind, rain, snow, mud, and the occasional collision, car paint undergoes

  • lots of wear and tear. That’s why Henry Ford developed a super-tough, asphalt-based,

  • paint that could really take the road. We know asphalt is tough, but it’s also expensive.

  • All car paint is. Depending on factors like rust and chips, repainting a car in the US

  • can range anywhere from $300 to over $3,000. You can make colored asphalt; colorful cars

  • bloomed all through the 1920’s but light and bright colors made the paint even more

  • expensive! When the stock market crashed, people went back to depressing—I mean durable!

  • Economical! —colors. Today, the most common car colors are neutrals.

  • Butif you like moneyinvest in a yellow car. Not only will its cheery color keep you

  • on the Bright Side of life, yellow cars have a higher resale value than their dour mates.

  • I’m no economist, but it has to do with supply and demandthere are fewer yellow

  • cars on the market, so lemon-lovers have to ante up.

  • You will see colorful advertisements painted on trucksbut that’s because ads aren’t

  • meant to last, and if they work, they pay for themselves. Otherwise, patterns are cost-prohibitive.

  • But, wouldn’t it be great to see art on every car? Instead of going to museumsour

  • highways, could becomeMoving seeems” (OK ... if you can come up with a better nameleave

  • it in the comments.) But looking at yellows, and neutrals, and

  • fancy ads, I wondermaybe tires are black because black goes with everything? Accidents

  • happenwhy tempt fate with tires that clash?

  • Tires do have a lot of safety features: no-slip tread prevents skidding, snow-tires prevent

  • sledding, and run-flat tires let you drive to repair shop after you drive over a spike.

  • And colors are traffic safety features. Orange cones, red fire trucks, the stripes of a cross

  • walkThere’s a long list of colors on the road chosen to catch your eye and help

  • you avoid hazards. But the black of your tires isn’t one of them.

  • You know what is in some tires for safety? Walnut shells! It sounds nutty, but walnut

  • shells are super-strong, and theirmicro bitshelp tires grip slippery roads! Maybe

  • they could use the inside of the walnut too. Peanut-butter sticks to the roof of your mouth,

  • would walnut-butter stick to the road? Butshouldn’t that make the tires nut-colored?

  • Why stick with black? Goodyear asked the same question. In the 1950’s

  • Goodyear developed tires in many shades to match your car. They even suggested you might

  • want to change tires regularly to match your fancy evening dress! (Of course, you should

  • wait to put on that lime green chiffon number until after you changed the tire!) They also

  • developed tires made of translucent material with lights inside. They glowed down the road!

  • Cool! Why weren’t they a hit? Two problems. First, like the white tires,

  • they got dirty really quickly. And secondyou got it, Bright Sidermoney! The look

  • of these tires was not just short lasting; it was expensive. Bad combo.

  • Tonight, you might see some lighted tire rims (the metal part of the wheel that shows).

  • White, yellow, pink, or greenlight-up rims have glow-in-the dark stickers or LED lights,

  • but check your local regulations before you buy them: light-up rims can be the opposite

  • of safe, and not legal in places that have deemed them a distraction.

  • Speaking of distractions, the world’s biggest tire is also black: it started life as Ferris

  • Wheel at the New York World’s Fair in 1964! Today, it sits on the side of Highway I-94,

  • in Detroit (The Motor City). Weighing 12-tons, and standing 80 feet tall, it’s difficult

  • to miss. (If you do, maybe you shouldn’t be driving.)

  • Paradoxically, the world’s biggest tire manufacturer, calculating by units created,

  • makes the tiniest tires. Lego makes tires with diameters just over a ½ inch and they

  • produce about 318 million tires a year! Making Lego theBiggesttire producer! And

  • yesthese teeny tires are blackto look like the real thing.

  • Black is chic. Maybe manufacturers would add dye to tires if they weren’t black already.

  • But they don’t have to. The compound Carbon Black does the trick and it’s there, not

  • to please Goth drivers (although that’s nice too), but because Carbon Black makes

  • the tire strongerand more likely to get you to your destination.

  • I hope all the tire talk didn’t leave you flat. Ha get it?

  • Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a

  • friend! And here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy. Just click to the left

  • or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!

Driving down the road, my wheels started turning, I thoughtover 17 million cars are sold

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關於汽車的9個事實,每個人都上網查過一次。 (9 Facts About Cars Everyone Has Googled Once)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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