Tom&Shelly wrote:
With the colder weather, I've noticed our hatch struts are not as strong, and occasionally wind even blew the hatch down. I was worried about the struts permanently losing their strength, but experience and the interwebs have tentatively convinced me this is normal. Anyone else have any experience with this? If so, thank you in advance for any insights!
PV=nRT, old mate. There ain't no getting around the Ideal Gas Equation.
Like all Laws there are exceptions, and I'm being a little simplistic maybe, but in general:
With Pressure on one side of the equation and Temperature on the other it is clear that, all else being the same, pressure is proportional to temperature.
Temperature in Kelvins that is.
So on a 70F day, its 294K
On a freezing day 32F, its 273K
294/273 = 1.077. i.e. you have 7.7% more pressure on a 70F day than you do on a 32F day.