Square wheel
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A literal square wheel is a wheel that, instead of being circular, has the shape of a square. A more common use is as slang, meaning stereotypically bad or naïve engineering (see reinventing the square wheel).
A square wheel can roll smoothly if the ground consists of evenly shaped inverted catenaries of the right size and curvature. Stan Wagon, a mathematician at Macalester College, has constructed a bicycle with square wheels, together with a special track for riding it on.
For other improbable wheels, see Reuleaux polygon.
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External link
- Math Trek: Riding on Square Wheels, Science News Online - contains illustrations and photos of Wagon's bicycle