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The Conversation
The Conversation
Kai James, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

How was the wheel invented? Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology nearly 6,000 years ago

copper Europe Mining
The assumption was that the wheel evolved from wooden rollers. Tetra Images via Getty Images

Imagine you’re a copper miner in southeastern Europe in the year 3900 B.C.E. Day after day you haul copper ore through the mine’s sweltering tunnels.

You’ve resigned yourself to the grueling monotony of mining life. Then one afternoon, you witness a fellow worker doing something remarkable.

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