The wheel as a disk rotating on the axis is a mover, allowing with less effort to move heavy loads. This is one of the oldest inventions of mankind, which has survived to this day almost unchanged.
Instruction manual
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Archaeologists date the invention of the wheel to the last quarter of the 5th millennium BC. The earliest wheel models were found in Romania and Ukraine. Later findings were carried out in Poland, Germany, and the Northern Black Sea region. In Mesopotamia, by 2700 BC, chariots, which were depicted in the drawings and were found in the burials of the Sumerian kings, were already widespread.
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In the South Urals in the II millennium BC, an improved model appeared - a wheel with spokes. At the same time, a wheel with a hub and a curved rim was invented in Asia Minor. After another thousand years, the Celts began to use a metal rim around the wheel to increase the strength of their chariots; in modern cars, strollers and bicycles, rubber tires perform this function.
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The wheel was used not only in transport. It found its application in the mill, pottery wheel, spinning wheel, and later in various manufactories and mines. However, its main function remained the transportation of heavy loads over considerable distances by land. Also, the wheel was used in military affairs. War chariots were ubiquitous in the Ancient World from the Middle East to the British Isles.
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The wheel at times reduces the cost of energy for moving cargo on land. A wheel becomes the simplest mechanism if its center is mounted on a fixed or rotating axis. If the axis connects two wheels, then their rotation occurs in such a way as if they were one body. This simple mechanical device is still used in modern cars.
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A wheel axle is used to obtain a mechanical advantage by increasing the applied force due to the torque. Traction of the vehicle with the ground occurs only at the sole of the wheels, which for the vehicle perform the function of a supporting system, which significantly reduces the energy loss during movement.
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The important role of the wheel in the economic sphere has found expression in its metaphorical deification. In different cultures, it symbolizes the movement of the sun. In Buddhism, it personifies the law and truth, the perfection and symmetry of the universe, peaceful changes. The winged wheel is a symbol of speed, and the wheel of a war chariot was associated with rule and power. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the six-spoke wheel is an attribute of Zeus or (in the Roman version) of Jupiter.
