– Why are majority of steering wheels in cars “wheels” (round) and not any other shape?
In: Engineering
A circle looks the same no matter how you turn it. So, even without looking, you can always grab the steering wheel in exactly the same way, no matter how it is currently turned. So, if you need to to rotate the wheel a lot, like when you are doing a sharp turn at low speed, you can easily move your hands around as you spin the wheel around.
Some racecars have non-round wheels, because during a race, you never need to turn the wheel more the 90 degrees, so you never need to move your hands around on the wheel.
This is just an assumption, but I believe aside from being ergonomic, the degree you turn the front wheel corresponds with the actual drive wheels. Because of the round shape.
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