How was the wheel invented? Computer modeling reveals the birth of an unlikely world -changing technology almost 6000 years ago

Imagine you are a copper cashier in southeastern Europe in 3900. Pr. BC. BC. BC. Daily after day you carry copper ore through mine tunnels.

You have resigned into the tedious monotony of mining life. Then one afternoon you see that a colleague is doing something wonderful.

With a strange -looking counterpoint, it casually carries three times the weight of body weight on one journey. Returning to the crowd to get another cargo, you suddenly seem to be much less taxed and much more profitable in your profession.

What you do not understand: you see what will change the course of history – not only for your small mining community, but to all humanity.

Despite the wheel’s immeasurable effect, no one is sure about who invented it or when and where it was first conceived. The hypothetical scenario described above is based on 2015. The theory is that the mining in the Carpathian Mountains – now in Hungary – first invented the wheel almost 6,000 years ago as a means of transporting copper ore.

The theory is supported by the discovery of more than 150 miniature wagons in archaeologists working in the region. These wicker -sized, four -wheel models were made of clay, and their outer surfaces were engraved with a braided articular model reminiscent of baskets used by mining communities at the time. Carbon dating later revealed that these wagons are the earliest views of the wheel transport.

This theory also raises me a special interest in aviation and cosmos engineers studying the science of engineering design. How is it unclear, the scientifically naive Mountaining Society discovered a circle when highly advanced civilizations, such as ancient Egyptians, did not do so?

Contradictory idea

The wheels have long been thought to have evolved from ordinary wooden rollers. But until recently, no one could explain how this transformation happened. In addition, from the 1960s, some researchers have begun to express great doubts about roller -wheel theory.

After all, the Rollers are useful, they need a flat, solid terrain and knee without a slope and sharp curves. In addition, when they pass, the rollers used must be constantly transported to the front of the line to move the cargo. For all these reasons, the ancient world used rolls sparingly. According to skeptics, the rollers were too rare and too impractical to be the starting point of the wheel evolution.

Any mine with closed, man -made passages would have provided favorable conditions for rolls. This factor forced my team to review the roller hypothesis.

Turn point

You need two main innovations to move from rollers to wheels. The first is the modification of a wheelchair transporting the cargo. The basket base must be equipped with semicircular nests, which hold the rolls on the spot. In this way, when the operator pulls the bag, the rollers are pulled with it.

This innovation may have been encouraged by the closed nature of the mine environment, when it was necessary to carry the use of used rollers periodically to the front of the stroller, and it would have been particularly difficult.

The discovery of blisters was the turn of the wheel evolution and paved the way for the second and major innovation. This next step included a replacement of the rolls themselves. To understand how and why this change occurred, we went to physics and computer engineering.

Circle Evolution Modeling

To start our own research, we created a computer program to model evolution from roller to wheel. Our hypothesis was that this transformation was driven by a phenomenon called “mechanical advantage”. The same principle allows reps to enhance the strength of the consumer adhesion by providing additional leverage. Similarly, if we could modify the roller shape to ensure a mechanical advantage, it would enhance the user’s push force to facilitate the enlargement of the basket.

Our algorithm acted by modeling hundreds of potential roller shapes and evaluating how everyone performed, both in terms of mechanical advantage and structural strength. The latter was used to determine whether a certain roller would break under the weight of the cargo. As forecasted, the algorithm eventually came closer to the familiar circle and axle shape, which found that it was optimal.

As part of the algorithm, each new design turned out to be slightly better than its predecessor. We believe that a similar evolutionary process took place with miners 6000 years ago.

It is unclear what initially encouraged the mining to investigate the alternative shapes of the rolls. One of the possibilities is that friction in the roller socket interface of the surrounding wood worn out, so it narrowed the roller slightly at the site of contact. Another theory is that the miners began to thinly rollers so that their wheelchairs could pass small obstacles to the ground.

In any case, due to the mechanical advantage, this narrowing of the axle area facilitated the carts. Over time, better -functioning designs have been more favorable to others, and new rollers have been designed to mimic these best performers.

As a result, the rollers became increasingly narrower while it was all left with a slender band covered by large discs at both ends. This initial structure marks what we now call a “wheel”.

According to our theory, there was no exact moment when the wheel was invented. Rather, as with the evolution of species, the circle gradually resulted from the accumulation of small improvements.

This is just one of many sections in the long and continuing evolution of the wheel. More than 5,000 years after the Carpathian Mountains, the Paris bicycle mechanic invented radial ball bearings that once again caused the revolution by transporting wheels.

Ironically, but the ball bearings are conceptually identical to the rolls, the evolutionary predecessor of the wheel. Ball bearings form a ring around the axis, creating a rolling interface between the axis and the wheel hub, thus bypassing friction. With this innovation, the evolution of the wheel came into a full circle.

This example also demonstrates how the evolution of the wheel wheel, much like its iconic form, traced the chain path – one without a clear beginning, without end, and many quiet revolutions along the way.

This article has been published from a conversation, non -profit, independent news organizations that provide you with facts and reliable analysis to help you give meaning to our complex world. It wrote this: When James, Institute of Georgia Technology

Read more:

When James receives funding from the National Science Foundation.