Why the Wheel is Round

A unique history of the wheel and other rotational devices. This book examines the contraptions and tricks we have devised in order to more efficiently move through the physical world.

There is no part of our bodies that fully rotates. Be it a wrist, ankle or arm in a shoulder socket, we are made to twist only so far. The wheel is a rotational mechanism that accomplishes what our physical form cannot.

Professor Emeritus of Biology at Duke University in North Carolina, Steven Vogel, the author of Why the Wheel Is Round, combines his engineering expertise with a remarkable curiosity about how things work to explore how wheels and other mechanisms were, until very recently, powered by the push and pull of the muscles and skeletal systems of humans and other animals.

Providing a unique history of the wheel and other rotational devices, this book examines the contraptions and tricks we have devised in order to more efficiently move (and move through) the physical world, offering the reader a captivating exploration of our common technological heritage based on the simple concept of rotation.