eli5 how a complete rotation of wheel measures the length of circumstance with the same rotation the inner portion having less circumstance also covers the same distance.

Question

Sorry circumference.

In: 0

Answer 1

Grab a pencil and lay it on a desk, a table, any flat surface with open space. Grab it with 2 fingers by the eraser, and wiggle it side to side- if you’re trying to, a very small motion at one end of the pencil can get the other end of the pencil to move a much larger distance. Because of that, the tip of the pencil is moving much faster than the rest of the object.

This is a lever, fundamentally, and the same principle applies to wheels: the center of the wheel is not spinning very quickly, but the outside of the wheel is moving further than more inward parts of the wheel in the same period of time, and is thus by definition moving faster.