This article reviews the role of nature in the development of wheels. The natural emergence of the wheel design can be predicted by using the constructal law in two ways. First, consider the evolution of the wheels made by humans. Second, imagine the horizontal movement of a terrestrial animal as a rolling body. Nature evolved not only the design of wheel-like movement, but also the design for changing speeds. The designs developed by humans are latecomers to this long evolutionary sequence. They come from the same natural tendency to move on Earth more easily, to go with the flow. The evolutionary designs of nature have arrived at wheel-like locomotion and at changes in body movement that result in changing speeds.

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This article is based on three recent research articles

1.
A.
Bejan
2010
,
The constructal-law origin of the wheel, size, and skeleton in animal design
,
American Journal of Physics
, Vol.
78
(
7
), July, pp.
692
699
2.
J. D.
Charles
and
A.
Bejan
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2009
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The evolution of speed, size, and shape in modern athletics
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Journal of Experimental Biology
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212
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2419
2425
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3.
A.
Bejan
and
S.
Lorente
,
2010
,
The constructal law of design and evolution in nature
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences
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365
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1335
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4.
See also the constructal-law portal at www.constructal.org.
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