1. Plastic
   Artillery
2. Infantry

The earliest cars used artillery wheels. They featured a design where the tire was bolted to the wheel. Made it hard to change a flat tire, for sure.

1. Unicorn tire
   Whitewall
2. Greyback

Whitewalls hold a great place in automotive history. They actually used to be on both sidewalls, because the tires were exposed​ on both sides by open fenders.

1. Monster tires
   Regular tires
2. Whitewalls

White letter tires are made in a similar process as whitewalls. They simply add an extra layer of black on the sidewall and then grind the black rubber off of the white letters.

1. Kilometers
   Miles
2. Both

Tire speed ratings are set in both miles and kilometers per hour. Kilometers per hour probably makes a lot more sense in Europe than it does in the U.S.

1. Speed
   Carrying capacity
2. Both

As a tire's load index increases, so does its carrying capacity. The load index of your tires will depend on the size of your car.

1. A sports car
   A Ford truck
2. An 18-wheeler

A space shuttle's wheels are about the size of the tires you'll find on an 18-wheeler. A shuttle's tire can support 142,000 pounds.

1. A tire tool
   A tire pump
2. A tire wheel

Michelin is working to produce the first "tweels" to be sold on the market. They're airless tire-wheels with spokes, which will never go flat.

1. X
   Y
2. Z

Y is the highest speed rating, at 186 mph. Z was the first speed rating, at 149+ miles per hour, but now that's known as V.

1. Paint
   Zinc oxide
2. Titanium

Tires used to be white, thanks to zinc oxide. This was used as a strengthening agent used to reinforce the rubber.

1. 1850s
   1920s
2. 1960s

It was in the 1920s that researchers discovered that carbon black made tires more durable and long-lasting. This increased the road-wear abrasion immensely.

1. Boiling
   Shaking
2. Charring

Carbon black is made from charring organic material. It's pure elemental carbon, but in colloidal particle form.

1. Ford
   Crayola
2. Edison

Believe it or not, Crayola Crayons sold their carbon black to the Goodrich Tire Company. That's when white tires became a thing of the past.

1. Goodyear
   Ulrich
2. BMW

Goodyear tires is famous for created an illuminated tire in 1961. It was literally lit from within by lightbulbs.

1. 1850
   1914
2. 1956

Whitewall tires were invented in 1914 by Chicago's Vogue Tyre Company. They melded a carbon black tread with a zinc white sidewall. Oreo cookie tires!

1. Chevrolet
   Audi
2. BMW

BMW equips most of its vehicles with run-flat tires. They're a very popular option for most models, but not their electric vehicles or motorsport line.

1. Yes
2. No

Rarely will you find a new car these days that comes with a spare tire. Instead, they may give you a patch kit and a can of compressed air.

1. Smallest
   Largest
2. Oldest

If you're a tire junkie, head to Allen Park, Michigan. They have the largest tire on Earth, weighing 12 tons, and 80 feet tall. It was once used as a Ferris wheel, at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.

1. 1 million
   5 million
2. 280 million

Every year, Americans dispose of about 280 million tires. Most of those come from passenger cars, and only 42 million come from trucks.

1. Steering wheels
   Asphalt
2. Building houses

Each year, melted tires are used to repave asphalt. This improves the surface and extends the life of the road.

1. Yes
2. No

Repurposed tires work wonders in the garden! They can be used as garden mulch, or even as flower-bed edging or planters.

1. Upcycling
   Reforming
2. Discarding

Tires aren't just recycled in America, they're upcycled. That means that there's a plan in place to recycle the tires. Tires are all around us, used in remarkable ways!

1. Yes
2. No

Technically, they're two different things. The wheel is the circular object that has a hub and axle. The tire is the rubber portion that touches the earth.

1. Tire
2. Wheel

The invention of the wheel was necessary for the invention of the tire. The invention of the wheel is considered to be one of humanity's greatest accomplishments​.

1. Concept
   Nouveau​
2. Millenium

Concept tires offer new, sophisticated designs that don't tread the traditional path. The "tweel" is a concept tire.

1. US
   Denmark
2. Germany

Denmark is the largest tire manufacturer in the world. Funny enough, it's all coming from Lego, the toy company. They make little tires, of course.

1. Hankook
   Nokian
2. Toyo
   Fabian

Fabian is not a tire manufacturer, but all the rest are. Also Pirelli, Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear.

1. Phlegmatic
   Pneumatic
2. Pneumoniatic

Tires are pneumatic, and that means that air is held under pressure within them. These days, tires form a pressure seal with the rim of the wheel and do not require an inner tube.

1. 1800
   1845
2. 1905

The first pneumatic tire with an inner tube was invented in 1845. It was made by Scottish inventor Robert Thomson.

1. Natural rubber
   Synthetic rubber
2. Both

Both natural and synthetic rubber can be used to make tires. These need to be treated with a variety of chemicals to ensure their strength and durability.

1. Embalming
   Pistilization
2. Vulcanization

Vulcanization is the word used for curing tires. The process was discovered by Charles Goodyear in 1839.

1. Yes
2. No

Automation is increasingly used, but most tire production still requires some manual labor in staffed factories. More than 250 million new tires are sold each year in the U.S. alone.

1. The soil
   Flowers
2. Trees

Natural rubber comes from the rubber tree, or Hevea brasiliensis. Liquid latex is mixed with acids that cause the rubber to solidify.

1. Coal
   Vegetable oil
2. Crude oil

One of the many uses of crude oil is to produce synthetic rubber. The polymers in the crude oil are what lead to the synthetic rubber.

1. Polopos
   Beads
2. Bolts

Beads are metal-wire bundles that are rubber-covered. These hold the tire onto the wheel.

1. Artist sketches
   Fashion
2. Computers

Today, computer systems are used to design tires. Thanks to complex analysis software, they're able to use test data to engineer high-performance tires.