A bicycle with SQUARE WHEELS??!!!

ScoobMaster

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2001
2,528
10
81
Full Story

A square wheel can roll smoothly if it travels over a roadway of the right geometric shape.
Stan Wagon, a mathematician at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has a bicycle with square wheels. It's a weird contraption, but he can ride it perfectly smoothly. His secret is the shape of the road over which the wheels roll.
 

VictorLazlo

Senior member
Jul 23, 2003
996
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Thats it!! Time to repave the US so we can take advantage of this revolutionary technology!
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
Those divets need to be spaced equally too.

There can't be much work for mathematicians these days, eh ¬
 

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
A) People have too much time on their hands, did Killbat invent this or something?
B)It's still the same concept as what we use now, round surface comes in contact with a flat one = smooth ride. There's really nothing amazing about this, it can me done with many different shapes, it all depends on how kooky you want the surface of the "road" to be.
 

Ness

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2002
5,407
2
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it may move smoothly but I would be willing to bet that the effort required to make it move is greater than that of a bicycle with round wheels.
 

Mani

Diamond Member
Aug 9, 2001
4,808
1
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Did it really take a mathematician to figure this out?
rolleye.gif
 

ThisIsMatt

Banned
Aug 4, 2000
11,820
1
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This is nothing remotely new. There have been railways with square wheels and obviously custom track...making it easier to get up hills...
 

MaxDSP

Lifer
May 15, 2001
10,056
0
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Originally posted by: ness1469
it may move smoothly but I would be willing to bet that the effort required to make it move is greater than that of a bicycle with round wheels.

Sherlock, is that you?


;)
 

NickE

Senior member
Mar 18, 2000
201
0
0
Originally posted by: TMPadmin
"Why reinvent the wheel!?"

Some people have too much time on their hands.

Because there is a patent on the round one that stops you using it without paying licence fees?

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