**The Benefits of Lightweight Wheels**

It's 25% harder to drive with wheels that are 25% heavier, making it 20% easier anyway. Lightweight wheels let the car suspension do a better job keeping the wheels and tires on the road unless you're in a hydraulic car jumping competition. If your wheels and tires are making consistently good contact with the road, you're gonna have better traction, better control, and a better handling car overall. It'll have a better ride too because the suspension can do its job.

You might look how those heavy 20's look, but if you care more about performance than style, you're better off without them to take advantage of the performance benefits of lightweight wheels. Car manufacturers these days sell most of their models with aluminum alloy wheels instead of steel. Aluminum is almost one-third the density of Steel, yes it's usually an aluminum nickel alloy, but it still comes in way under what an equivalent steel wheel would be.

**The History of Lightweight Wheels**

Some of the earliest lightweight wheels were made using magnesium alloy and they are used for what else racing and that's why your dad said "oh cool mag wheels" when he found out he had rims on his 1996 Grand Caravan. It became an overarching term for cool wheels, magnesium is the lightest metallic material around so the wheels were way lighter than steel but they had major problems with corrosion.

New production techniques and protective coatings have made magnesium alloy wheels more durable, and no they don't burst into flames. They're crazy light but they cost a lot so you usually only see them on race cars. Most modern alloy wheels are cast from a much more reasonably priced combination of aluminum and nickel the metals are melted down together and then either poured, blown or sucked into a mold.

**Modern Manufacturing Methods**

The proportion of each metal determines the wheel's weight and strength less nickel makes lighter wheels but they can be much more prone to bending. More nickel adds a little weight and resistance to bending but then they're more prone to cracking. But overall casting strikes the best balance of cost, style, and performance.

Flow forming is a new manufacturing method that takes a cast wheel and applies heat and high pressure rollers to the inside of the barrel. The aluminum gets stretched and compressed which gives it some extra strain. If you want a much stronger lightweight wheel, you want forged aluminum alloy wheels in forging a solid block of billet aluminum is crushed into a wheel shape using heat in millions of pounds of pressure.

**The Benefits of Forged Wheels**

The shape is then refined with high pressure rollers and even more heat using all that force gives the aluminum a much higher density than if it's cast. But still comparably lighter than steel so the wheels gain massive amounts of strength while staying superlight. And because they're priced some are between magnesium alloys and cast aluminum alloys forged wheels are a great option for people who want it all.

**Conclusion**

Wheels subscribe to Donut means a lot, and if you want to see more cool stuff, check out Brilliant. If you want to get a better hold on the physics of inertia that we just yelled about well then you really need to check out Brilliant.org. You get to apply all of this in real-world demonstrations that help you develop your intuition on a deeper level actively solving problems becomes addictive.

A great place to start is with classical mechanics which helps you develop a rigorous approach to describing nature while investigating phenomena like drones and rockets go to Brilliant.org slash Science Garage and sign up for free. Also, the first 200 people to go to a link will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.

I'll see you at Brilliant be sure if you haven't already guys click this big yellow button it means subscribe, and that's gonna make sure you never miss an episode of Science Garage, guys follow me on Instagram at Fitz Bartow, follow Donut at Donut Media. If you hate your wheels, check out this episode on potholes, check out our video on how brakes work. See you next week, don't tell my wife how much the wheels on the car actually cost.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensteelies mags spinners rims don't say rims people don't say rims people say wheels wheels are like jewelry for your ride so they can broadcast to the world what your personal stylist but they're also super important to a car's perform you probably already know that to an extent the lighter the car is the better it's going to perform the weight of the wheels is also a huge factor in how well your car drives and candles so a toy lighter wheels are better they've got less rotational inertia and they create less unsprung weight let's start with inertia an object with more mass has a greater tendency to resist changes in its state of motion that means both moving from a state arrest and stopping from a state of move rotational inertia is the resistance to a change in rotation around an axis if you think about how we define torque or set a distance more force further away from your axis means more force on the axis you can check out our torque versus horsepower video here but with wheels it's the same principle in Reverse more mass further from the axis requires more force from the center to get moving how much energy it takes to change how fast an object is spinning is directly proportional to its rotational inertia you've probably seen the example of the spinning ice skaters with their arms fully extended they've got a fairly large rotational inertia and they spin at a certain speed if the skater pulls their arms in toward their body some mass has moved toward the center of rotation giving them less rotational inertia and because of the laws of the conservation of energy they start spinning faster so an object with mass closer with center of rotation will take less energy to spend and less energy to accelerate than an object with an identical mass located further from its axis if you take a 25 pound 18 inch wheel and a 25 pound 20 inch wheel that have the same distribution of mass and your Gimlin onto the same amount of force the 18 inch wheel is going to accelerate more quickly by the same reasoning the smaller wheel can also be stopped sooner when the brakes are applied and if you add some extra hefty 26 inch tubs to your ride the engine's gonna have to work harder to get it rolling that's gonna make the car slower off the line and hurt fuel economy when you're trying to accelerate wheels are also a part of a car's unsprung weight unsprung weight is the stuff that the suspension doesn't support and it includes the suspension components the braking systems mounted therein and the tires wrong weight is all the stuff that the suspension does support like the engine the exhaust the bodywork in the interior the suspensions got its hands full controlling all of that weight already and it also has to control the wheels and tires they bounce over the ground heavy wheels and a lot of unsprung weight the shocks and springs won't be able to control the motion of a heavy wheel as well or as quickly as they would a lighter set of wheels add in the tire weight in a typical cars wheel and tire combo can hit 50 pounds just imagine how much harder it be for you to control 50 pounds hanging off one arm versus 40 it's it's 25% 25% harder or it's 20% easier anyway lightweight wheels let the car suspension do a better job keeping the wheels and tires on the road unless you're in a hydraulic car jumping competition if your wheels and tires are making consistently good contact with the road you're gonna have better traction better control and a better handling car overall it'll have a better ride too because the suspension can do its job you might look how those heavy 20's look but if you care more about performance than style you're better off without them to take advantage of the performance benefits of lightweight wheels car manufacturers these days sell most of their models with aluminum alloy wheels instead of steel one aluminum is almost one-third the density of Steel yes it's usually an aluminum nickel alloy but it still comes in way under what an equivalent steel wheel would be it also doesn't hurt that alloy wheels can be made to look a lot better than stealing the old wheels are just stamped pieces of steel that are welded together they're not light and they certainly aren't pretty but they are strong and durable their significant head actually makes them better for finding traction say in the snow so steel wheels are perfect for your set of winter tires some of the earliest lightweight wheels were made using magnesium alloy and they are used for what else racing and that's why your dad said oh cool mag wheels when he found out he had rims on his 1996 Grand Caravan it became an overarching term for cool wheels magnesium is the lightest metallic material around so the wheels were way lighter than steel but they had major problems with corrosion new production techniques and protective coatings have made magnesium alloy wheels more durable and no they don't burst into flames they're crazy light but they cost a lot so you usually only see them on race cars subtraction most modern alloy wheels are cast from a much more reasonably priced combination of aluminum and nickel the metals are melted down together and then either poured blown or sucked into a mold your must and allowed to cool the proportion of each metal determines the wheels weight and strength less nickel makes lighter wheels but they can be much more prone to bending more nickel adds a little weight and resistance to bending but then they're more prone to cracking but overall casting strikes the best balance of cost style and performance flow forming is a new manufacturing method that takes a cast wheel and applies heat and high pressure rollers to the inside of the barrel the aluminum gets stretched and compressed which gives it some extra strain if you want a much stronger lightweight wheel you want forged aluminum alloy wheels in forging a solid block of billet aluminum is crushed into a wheel shape using heat in millions of pounds of pressure the shape is then refined with high pressure rollers and even more heat using all that force gives the aluminum a much higher density than if it's cast but still comparably lighter than steel so the wheels gain massive amounts of strength while staying superlight and because they're priced some are between magnesium alloys and cast aluminum alloys forged wheels are a great option for people who want it all wheels subscribe to donut means a lot and if you want to see more cool stuff check out brilliant if you want to get a better hold on the physics of inertia that we just yelled about well then you really need to check out brilliant org you get to apply all of this in real-world demonstrations that help you develop your intuition on a deeper level actively solving problems becomes addictive an interactive experiencing I gotta tell you it's pretty cool a great place to start is with classical mechanics which helps you develop a rigorous approach to describing nature while investigating phenomena like drones and rockets go to brilliant tidal org slash science garage and sign up for free also the first 200 people to go to a link will get 20% off their annual premium subscription I'll see air brilliant be sure if you haven't already guys click this big yellow button it means subscribe and that's gonna make sure you never miss an episode of science garage guys follow me on instagram at Fitz Bartow follow donut at donut media if you hate your wheels check out this episode on potholes check out our video on how brakes work see you next week don't tell my wife how much the wheels on the car actually coststeelies mags spinners rims don't say rims people don't say rims people say wheels wheels are like jewelry for your ride so they can broadcast to the world what your personal stylist but they're also super important to a car's perform you probably already know that to an extent the lighter the car is the better it's going to perform the weight of the wheels is also a huge factor in how well your car drives and candles so a toy lighter wheels are better they've got less rotational inertia and they create less unsprung weight let's start with inertia an object with more mass has a greater tendency to resist changes in its state of motion that means both moving from a state arrest and stopping from a state of move rotational inertia is the resistance to a change in rotation around an axis if you think about how we define torque or set a distance more force further away from your axis means more force on the axis you can check out our torque versus horsepower video here but with wheels it's the same principle in Reverse more mass further from the axis requires more force from the center to get moving how much energy it takes to change how fast an object is spinning is directly proportional to its rotational inertia you've probably seen the example of the spinning ice skaters with their arms fully extended they've got a fairly large rotational inertia and they spin at a certain speed if the skater pulls their arms in toward their body some mass has moved toward the center of rotation giving them less rotational inertia and because of the laws of the conservation of energy they start spinning faster so an object with mass closer with center of rotation will take less energy to spend and less energy to accelerate than an object with an identical mass located further from its axis if you take a 25 pound 18 inch wheel and a 25 pound 20 inch wheel that have the same distribution of mass and your Gimlin onto the same amount of force the 18 inch wheel is going to accelerate more quickly by the same reasoning the smaller wheel can also be stopped sooner when the brakes are applied and if you add some extra hefty 26 inch tubs to your ride the engine's gonna have to work harder to get it rolling that's gonna make the car slower off the line and hurt fuel economy when you're trying to accelerate wheels are also a part of a car's unsprung weight unsprung weight is the stuff that the suspension doesn't support and it includes the suspension components the braking systems mounted therein and the tires wrong weight is all the stuff that the suspension does support like the engine the exhaust the bodywork in the interior the suspensions got its hands full controlling all of that weight already and it also has to control the wheels and tires they bounce over the ground heavy wheels and a lot of unsprung weight the shocks and springs won't be able to control the motion of a heavy wheel as well or as quickly as they would a lighter set of wheels add in the tire weight in a typical cars wheel and tire combo can hit 50 pounds just imagine how much harder it be for you to control 50 pounds hanging off one arm versus 40 it's it's 25% 25% harder or it's 20% easier anyway lightweight wheels let the car suspension do a better job keeping the wheels and tires on the road unless you're in a hydraulic car jumping competition if your wheels and tires are making consistently good contact with the road you're gonna have better traction better control and a better handling car overall it'll have a better ride too because the suspension can do its job you might look how those heavy 20's look but if you care more about performance than style you're better off without them to take advantage of the performance benefits of lightweight wheels car manufacturers these days sell most of their models with aluminum alloy wheels instead of steel one aluminum is almost one-third the density of Steel yes it's usually an aluminum nickel alloy but it still comes in way under what an equivalent steel wheel would be it also doesn't hurt that alloy wheels can be made to look a lot better than stealing the old wheels are just stamped pieces of steel that are welded together they're not light and they certainly aren't pretty but they are strong and durable their significant head actually makes them better for finding traction say in the snow so steel wheels are perfect for your set of winter tires some of the earliest lightweight wheels were made using magnesium alloy and they are used for what else racing and that's why your dad said oh cool mag wheels when he found out he had rims on his 1996 Grand Caravan it became an overarching term for cool wheels magnesium is the lightest metallic material around so the wheels were way lighter than steel but they had major problems with corrosion new production techniques and protective coatings have made magnesium alloy wheels more durable and no they don't burst into flames they're crazy light but they cost a lot so you usually only see them on race cars subtraction most modern alloy wheels are cast from a much more reasonably priced combination of aluminum and nickel the metals are melted down together and then either poured blown or sucked into a mold your must and allowed to cool the proportion of each metal determines the wheels weight and strength less nickel makes lighter wheels but they can be much more prone to bending more nickel adds a little weight and resistance to bending but then they're more prone to cracking but overall casting strikes the best balance of cost style and performance flow forming is a new manufacturing method that takes a cast wheel and applies heat and high pressure rollers to the inside of the barrel the aluminum gets stretched and compressed which gives it some extra strain if you want a much stronger lightweight wheel you want forged aluminum alloy wheels in forging a solid block of billet aluminum is crushed into a wheel shape using heat in millions of pounds of pressure the shape is then refined with high pressure rollers and even more heat using all that force gives the aluminum a much higher density than if it's cast but still comparably lighter than steel so the wheels gain massive amounts of strength while staying superlight and because they're priced some are between magnesium alloys and cast aluminum alloys forged wheels are a great option for people who want it all wheels subscribe to donut means a lot and if you want to see more cool stuff check out brilliant if you want to get a better hold on the physics of inertia that we just yelled about well then you really need to check out brilliant org you get to apply all of this in real-world demonstrations that help you develop your intuition on a deeper level actively solving problems becomes addictive an interactive experiencing I gotta tell you it's pretty cool a great place to start is with classical mechanics which helps you develop a rigorous approach to describing nature while investigating phenomena like drones and rockets go to brilliant tidal org slash science garage and sign up for free also the first 200 people to go to a link will get 20% off their annual premium subscription I'll see air brilliant be sure if you haven't already guys click this big yellow button it means subscribe and that's gonna make sure you never miss an episode of science garage guys follow me on instagram at Fitz Bartow follow donut at donut media if you hate your wheels check out this episode on potholes check out our video on how brakes work see you next week don't tell my wife how much the wheels on the car actually cost