On what kind of surface would a square wheel function the same as a round wheel?

(In reply to re(5): I dont know why but.... by TomM)

After giving it some thought, I think that a "straight" cycloidical surface wouldn't cut it. If you look at the "humps" on such a surface, they are semicircular. Which means that at the point that they join up, the lines are actually merging into one line (the circles are tangent there).

Which means that the valley would be too "narrow" for a 90 degree angle of a square wheel. For it to be accomodated, we need the humps to form right angles with each other, so instead of being 180 degrees of the arc, they need to be formed from 90 degree arcs.

Posted by levik on 2002-11-20 07:38:05