Did you know this?

The wheel is probably the most important mechanical invention of all time. Nearly every machine built since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution involves a single, basic principle embodied in one of mankind鈥檚 truly significant inventions. It鈥檚 hard to imagine any mechanized system that would be possible without the wheel or the idea of a symmetrical component moving in a circular motion on an axis. From tiny watch gears to automobiles, jet engines and computer disk drives, the principle is the same.
Based on diagrams on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of this essential invention was a potter鈥檚 wheel that was used at Ur in Mesopotamia (part of modern day Iraq} as early as 3500 BC. The first use of the wheel for transportation was probably on Mesopotamian chariots in 3200 BC. It is interesting to note that wheels may have had industrial or manufacturing applications before they were used on vehicles.

A wheel with spokes first appeared on Egyptian chariots around 2000 BC, and wheels seem to have developed in Europe by 1400 BC without any influence from the Middle East. Because the idea of the wheel appears so simple, it鈥檚 easy to assume that the wheel would have simply "happened" in every culture when it reached a particular level of sophistication. However, this is not the case. The great Inca, Aztec and Maya civilizations reached an extremely high level of development, yet they never used the wheel. In fact, there is no evidence that the use of the wheel existed among native people anywhere in the Western Hemisphere until well after contact with Europeans.

Even in Europe, the wheel evolved little until the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution the wheel became the central component of technology, and came to be used in thousands of ways in countless different mechanisms

You should get the Pulitzer Prize for that fine piece of literature.

oh my god.

what would I have ever done without that knowledge?

Say what you will, but my vote is for the toilet.

this looks like a report I wrote in high school...

I like cookies!

*yawn*

Thanks, now I can say I learned something today.

i do now...very interesting

I think I heard that somewhere else

So whats the question, or did I miss it?
OH! Scuze me, did I know that?, no, I didnt and know what? I didnt care either, as long as my car rolls down the road, I really dont care.