(no music) #1237 Trivia Tuesday - Let Me Bore You To Sleep (19th November 2024)

Hello, hello, hello, hi, are you there? Is there anybody there? Hello and welcome to Trivia Tuesday. Yes, it's that time of the week again where I choose a weird random subject. Well, maybe not a weird subject, but a random subject.

And I tell you lots of trivia facts about that thing. So my name's Jason Newland. This is Let Me Bore You To Sleep.

Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. My website is jasonnewland.com. All my recordings are on there. And I've got a Facebook group called Jason Newland's Boring Group.

And that's it really, I can't think of anything else. So this recording will be six different versions, three without music. So without music 5 hours and 10 hours with music 5 hours and 10 hours.

So six different versions. And today I'm going to focus on trivia. Trivia Tuesday, Trivia Tuesday.

We're going to focus on the wheel, the wheel, wheel. So what have I come up with? Let's have a look. I didn't know this.

I didn't know this. The wheel. I mean, I guess this is something that I imagine a lot of people probably agree, potentially agree with.

It's one of the greatest inventions in a sense of how it's transformed society. You know, historically, possibly one of the greatest inventions. According to this, the some of these, by the way, it might not be factual, I'm not gonna fact check anything.

So if it's wrong, it's wrong. Oh, well. I'm just gonna read it out anyway.

So the earliest evidence of the wheel dates back to around 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia. Okay, I'm just pleased I was able to say that word. Is that Oh, is that near Los Angeles? I don't know.

The first wheels were used for pottery, not transportation. Ah, so the idea that a wheel was invented, and then used for like a horse and car or whatever. No, it was used to make pots.

Ah, so the potter's wheel was invented before the wheel used for carts or wagons, which is just another way of saying what I've already just said. Hmm. The oldest wooden wheel discovered is about 5200 years old, and was found in Slovenia.

That's near Texas, I think. And I wonder if it's still in use. How do they know it's 5200 years old? Do they have a date on it? An expiry date? Do they have a receipt in an envelope next to it? I mean, I don't know.

A price tag? Early wheels were solid discs made from a single piece of wood. Ah, I mean, that does seem to fit in with some of the historic stuff that I've seen. You know, horse and carts, wagon wheels, they all look like they were just a bit of wood.

Yeah. Ah, spoked wheels. Appeared around 2000 BCE.

Spoked wheels, greatly reducing wheel weight. Would wheel weight be an issue though? I suppose. I suppose if you were riding a bicycle, and the wheels are really heavy, it might be harder to pedal, maybe.

I don't know. I've never pedaled a bike with really heavy wheels. To be honest, it's been a while since I pedaled a bike.

So the wheel and axle mechanism is an example of a simple machine. The wheel and axle mechanism is an example of a simple machine. Okay, I don't really know what that means.

I know what it means, but I don't know what it means. The next one, the wheel was not used in some ancient civilizations, like the Inca Empire. Why? Maybe they didn't know about it.

I mean, there's parts of the world that didn't use electricity, wasn't there? They didn't know about electricity until the electricity person told them, whoever was in charge of electricity. Ancient Sumerians are credited with inventing the first wheeled vehicle. I don't know what a Sumerian is.

Did they live near Hawaii? I'm not sure. And now the next one is the wheelbarrow, a single wheeled cart. I know what a wheelbarrow is.

It was invented in ancient Greece or China. Well, make your mind up. They're very different places.

One's in China and one's in Greece. Different places. It's not like saying, oh, one was made in Japan and the other one was made in London.

You know, two places are quite close. Greece and China, that's a fair distance, I do believe. In fact, you'd need a wheel to get there, wouldn't you? The next one, wheels were initially attached to vehicles using fixed axles.

I don't actually know what an axle is. I'm not very good with cars. The only axle I know about is Axle Foley.

Axle. Is that the... No, because it turns, doesn't it? That's the thing, it turns. How would it be on a fixed axle then? How did it turn? Maybe it didn't.

Maybe it just slid. They had oil, always sort of put oil in front of it. Maybe, I don't know.

Maybe they needed to change. Maybe they thought, we need to change, make a change to these wheels. Because this fixed axle is okay, but it only goes down, only goes downhill.

Doesn't work any other way. Perhaps if we were able to rotate the wheels. Maybe, I don't know.

The first wheeled chariots were used in warfare around 2000 BCE, whenever that was. Chariots. So I didn't know that they were used in warfare.

I thought it was more kind of for games, during the chariots of fire. It was... Mind you, I don't think there was any wheels in that one, was there? It was just people running around. I'm not sure, but I'm just trying to think of like Ben-Hur and yeah, I don't know.

So the invention of the wheel was crucial for the development of transportation. Well yeah, kind of obvious there. Rubber tyres.

Rubber tyres were invented in the 19th century by Charles Goodyear. Is that true though? He must have been one of the richest people on the planet. If he invented rubber tyres, which have been used by billions of cars since the invention.

How much is that company worth? Because Goodyear tyres still exist, don't they? Wow. Blimey. Pneumatic air-filled tyres were invented by John Boyd Dunlop in 1887.

Dunlop. That's a famous name as well. I thought they made paint.

Didn't Dunlop make paint? Maybe they did that as well. It's a pharmaceutical. Pneumatic, so air-filled tyres.

I personally never really understand. I mean, maybe it's a weight thing, but just have full rubber tyres, no air. You can't get a puncture.

It would just be, why have it full of air? Just have it as it is. Full rubber. That's my invention.

Spoked wheels revolutionised transportation by making wheels lighter and faster. I mean, now thinking about it, would it really slow a car down to have wheels that were just all rubber? Would it make that much difference? Maybe it would. In Roman times, wheels were often made with iron rims to increase durability.

Oh, okay. I just realised what they mean, rim. So a bit of a rim job done.

And because, do they have, oh, rim, that's the bit in the middle, isn't it? That's the bit around, around the hole of the wheel. Because I guess originally it didn't, the wheels wouldn't have had a hole, would they? If they were full rubber. Or maybe they did have a hole and there was no rimming there.

And then they put it in to, yeah, to make the wheel stronger. Okay, that makes sense, I suppose. To increase durability.

I still think complete, forget the rim job, just have complete, no air, no blowing, no rim job, just rubber, completely all the way through. That makes sense to me. I don't know why, it just does.

Because there'd be no punctures, no accidents. Well, less accidents, you know. And people wouldn't get stranded in the middle of nowhere because they drove over a, I don't know, a prick on the road.

So yeah, or a spike or something. Bicycle, bicycle wheels are an evolution of the spoked wheel. Okay, well, I've never seen a spoked wheel outside of a bicycle.

That's the only spokes I've ever seen. Genuinely, you might think I'm lying, but it's true. I don't think I've ever seen any wheel that has spokes other than on a bicycle, like a moped, motorbike, bicycle, you know, that kind of thing.

A bike. Early wheels were attached directly to axles and did not rotate independently. Okay, well, they already covered that earlier, didn't they? Said that it didn't rotate.

Ball bearings, which allow wheels to spin smoothly, were developed in the 18th century. Again, I didn't, I suppose, yeah, because I guess you have to have that mechanism, don't you, in order for the wheels to turn. Yeah, I don't know much about how cars work.

I mean, you have to, like, press on or something, start, and press some buttons and steer and things, but that's about it. How the actual thing actually works, I don't know. I don't know much about cars.

I clearly know even less about wheels. The Ferris wheel is a famous amusement ride first introduced in 1893. So, does that mean the Ferris wheel was around before the car? Right, the next one, caster wheels often found, oh yeah, caster, I didn't know what that was, now I do.

Caster wheels often found on furniture allow for multi-directional movement. I mean, you get them on trolleys, don't you, shopping trolleys, which means you can, they're, I mean, I have not been into a supermarket and used a shopping trolley for years, but when I did, I do recall them not being the easiest things to manoeuvre. Goes right when you want to go left, goes up when you want to go down, goes backwards when you want to go forwards, very much like my brain.

So, the wheel has been essential in the development of gears and machinery, fair enough. The modern steering wheel for vehicles was introduced in the early 20th century. Hmm, the modern steering wheel.

So, what was the old one? What was the original one? Anyone? Was it just a stick? It might have been just a stick, mightn't it, just like left, right. Wow, I mean, I've never, I've never driven. I do know what a steering wheel is, you know, there's lots of things I've done, but I know what things are, not all things, but some things.

Next one. Many animals, such as hamsters, use exercise wheels for stimulation and exercise. Here's a story.

When I first got Andre, there is this, one of my friends, friends, I kind of got to know him a little bit, and he got Andre a present. And this was the time when I used to keep Andre in his cage, not all the time, just at night. And he bought him a hamster wheel.

Now, bearing in mind, Andre was tiny at the time, so it wasn't too small for him at the time. He was probably the size of a hamster, maybe probably smaller than a hamster, actually. But I tried to say to him, not Andre, but this, this bloke, he's not a hamster, he's a ferret.

And he said, well, what's the difference? It's just, it's the same. I said, no, it's not the same. He said, yeah, it is.

I said, it's not really. He said, you keep him in a cage, yeah. I said, you keep a parrot in a cage, you keep a lion in a cage, they're not the same.

He said, but do you want it or not? I said, okay, thanks. And he kept asking me, how's, how's he getting on? How's a ferret getting on with, he used to say, call him Andy or Andrew. How's Andy getting on with the, with the wheel? Is he still using it? I said, he's never used it.

Why? Because he's not a hamster. And he couldn't get it in his head that ferrets cannot be pacified or pleased by running around on a wheel. Well, in my experience, of course, I'm not an expert, but I lived with one for six and a half years.

I kind of figured out, at least Andre, he was not interested in that, to mindlessly do anything. He always did stuff with a purpose. He did, he knew what he wanted and what he wanted to do, and he did it.

And the idea of him running on a wheel for no reason was not going to happen. And it didn't happen. He didn't touch it.

He didn't like it. He didn't want it in his, in his cage. In fact, I think at one point he said, tell your friend, why doesn't he run on the wheel? I said, yeah, but he's not a hamster, is he? And Andre said, well, neither am I, neither am I. And I said, look, come on, I know that, you know that.

He just doesn't seem to understand that you're not a hamster. He said, what is it? What is it about me that makes him think that I'm a hamster? Probably just because you're little and furry. He said, so are your balls.

He said, I'm talking about your tennis balls. They're little and furry. I said, okay, this is supposed to be PG.

He said, I know. I just did it as a joke. I said, all right, Andre, stop it.

And then he went, he used to do that. He used to make that sound when he was angry. Honestly, sometimes he'd let it stink off if you got angry.

There was one time, I don't even know what it was that triggered him, but he jumped up into my lap and I cuddled him and he was like, he was angry about something. So I think I was cuddling him and he let off a pong. And it was the worst, honestly, I had to chuck the t-shirt away.

I couldn't even wash the t-shirt. It was that bad of a stink, like a skunk. I had to chuck the t-shirt away.

It was awful. That's not even an exaggeration. I remember when I first got in this big cage.

So it was very early on. It's after probably a week or so of having him. And I put him into the bedroom and I built the cage.

It took me a while. I didn't read the instructions, of course. And he made do with it being upside down.

And I opened the bedroom door and let him walk in. And he, even though it maybe been two weeks, a week, because he escaped from the other little cage he had. He bent all the metal bars back and bit through the wood.

He didn't want to be in there. So this, this cage was really, really large, but he didn't like it. And he just walked around it and sniffed it and kept going.

Angry, so angry, didn't like it at all. Eventually he'd sleep in there. Like during the day.

It leaves the doors open and he'd be in his hammock and he loved it in there. That was his, that was his place. And then it got to a point where he never went in there at all.

He had so many, so many different places where he'd sleep around the flat, that the cage was almost just ignored. Occasionally he'd go in there, but not very excited there suddenly. So the phrase reinventing the wheel means wasting effort on a well established idea.

Yeah. I kind of knew that. The water wheel was an early source of my voice going.

The water wheel was an early source of mechanical energy. I'm just trying to think the water wheel, that would be the kind of thing that you'd see in a windmill, wouldn't it? And that was also used for, that was the, that was kind of the first thing that was used like for pulley systems and use water and the power of, of water and stuff. Very clever.

The water, okay. The Segway uses gyroscopic, gyroscopic, did you hear that whistle then? Gyroscopic technology to stay balanced on two wheels. I didn't understand hardly any of that.

The wheel and axle were used in ancient Egypt to grind grain into flour. The wheel and axle were used, not just ancient, well, wasn't that the whole thing about windmills? They would turn grain into flour, didn't they? Isn't that the whole, what that was for? No? So the ancient Egypt did it first. So how did we discover it then? Some wheels were originally made with stone for grinding purposes, grinding grain into flour.

It always said it is going back over itself. So the next one, invention of the wheel allowed for the development of plows and agricultural tools. A lot of this is factual.

It's not very entertaining, is it? Oh, you mean wheels were used for tractors. Next you're going to say they were used for bikes. Were they used for cars? Were they used on planes for landing? Were they used on toys that were needed wheels? Were they used for skateboards? What else? Were they used for, it's just like, yeah, some of this is just so obvious.

Toy wheels have been found in agricultural digs indicating their use in ancient play. The unicycle has only one wheel and requires balance to ride. It's like the blatant obvious.

This isn't interesting. The only interesting thing about the unicycle is why? Why? It's the most ridiculous thing possibly ever. It is.

Come on, come on, be honest. Can you tell me you think the unicycle was a good idea? I've got a story about a unicycle, a unicyclist in London. I was a part of London and this unicyclist used to ride around on his big massive unicycle.

You know, it's really one of those really big ones. He's riding around on a London road, busy, busy London road. And this is both kind of tragic and heartwarming at the same time.

So he gets run over. That's the, that's not the heartwarming part. And it's like, I think the bus doesn't see him.

How? I don't know. But he ends up underneath a bus. Now he survives.

So it's, you know, it's, it's a, that's not the heartwarming part either. It's the positive part. The heartwarming part, I mean, the ridiculous part is the fact that he was on a unicycle on a busy London road.

It's, he doesn't, he doesn't deserve to be hurt, but he deserves to be not allowed to ride it. I mean, this is ridiculous. It's, it's just, yeah, I can't think of many things that are more ridiculous than that.

Swimming with sharks. That's probably one of the things that is just skydiving. Why? Bungee jumping.

It is, I remember once a bungee jumper, the person forgot to attach the other, the other part of the, the rope or the spring or whatever it was. It's like, it's tragic. It's like, just don't, don't do it in the first place.

And you haven't got to remember. There was a bloke that, oh God, I remember something about a parachute. But anyway, there was, um, oh, the heartwarming side, part of this story.

Loads of people, like now, loads of people would probably stand around and take photographs and film it for social media. But this is before social media was around. Loads of people lifted the bus off him.

I mean, I don't know if they tipped over. I mean, the bus was empty. They didn't like tip it over and suddenly 30 people were trapped.

That wasn't like that. Everyone got off the bus, which meant it was probably a bit lighter or quite a lot lighter, I imagine. But they lifted the bus off of this man.

I think the bus, maybe on his leg or something, and he survived and everything. So it was, it was a happy ending in that sense. But the heartwarming part is like the fact that all these people got together and synchronized and lifted this bus.

And I don't think anyone can argue that buses, they're probably quite heavy. So I was, yeah, that's the only story I've got on unicycles other than they're just ridiculous things. Absolutely ridiculous things.

I can't believe anyone thought that was a good idea. I've got a great invention. What is it? What is it? Well, do you know the wheel? Yeah, it's already been invented.

You can't invent the wheel. I mean, you know, I know, I know I've not invented the wheel. But I've invented something that uses the wheel.

Oh, what is it? It's going to be a bicycle. Well, why don't bicycle already exists? No, no, no, no, no. This only uses one wheel.

But don't you need two wheels to balance? No, no, it takes a bit of practice. But if you really put in the effort and learn to balance, it's fine. It's okay.

It's really it's okay. You can say that about tightrope walking. I mean, you can get yourself used to eating poison.

If you eat in small amounts, over a long period of time, you can get yourself immune to it. Well, yeah, I don't know. That's what I've been told.

Well, that's what I've been told. Let's move on from that. Anyway, no one eats my meals anymore.

So it's a really rubbish invention. No offence whoever invented it. Ferris wheels are named after George Washington, Gale Ferris Jr. Their inventor.

Now I'm sorry, but George Washington, Gale Ferris Jr. That's a silly name. Before you start, what do you mean George Washington? No, it's too many names. That's what I mean.

One, two, three, four, five, five names. No. You only need two names.

A middle name, but you don't need to use the middle name. And Junior is never needed. It's never needed.

We don't do that in this country. It's not needed. It's not.

It's not. It's not needed. Stop it.

Please stop it. See, my grandmother was called Edward. His first son was called Edward.

My grandmother was called Eileen. Her first daughter was called Eileen. It wasn't Eileen Jr. It wasn't Edward Jr. He didn't call himself Edward Sr. She didn't call herself Eileen Sr. It was just Eileen and Eileen.

With my granddad, everyone used to call him Ted, apart from me. Well, we used to call him Grandad, and his kids called him Dad. But his friends and everyone called him Ted.

And my uncle Eddie, they called him Eddie, not Edward. But his name was Edward. But not Junior.

Never Junior. Just Edward. So yeah, that's a bit of a B in my bonnet, wasn't it? The will has been symbolized as a cycle of life.

It's also like what we do, what we've done in this country is the third. George Arnold IV, whose father was George Arnold III. And that's a very kind of royal family thing, isn't it? So yeah, we don't, the working class people don't do that.

The will has been symbolized as a cycle of life in many cultures. Yes, that's true. Buddhism is one of them.

I think Hinduism as well. Wooden cart wheels were often bound with metal hoops for strength, which is the whole rim job thing again, isn't it? But on the outside rather than on the inside. So instead of rimming the hole, it rimmed the outer part of the wheel, which kind of makes sense to me.

It's a bit, that makes sense. It's a little bit like putting horseshoes, metal horseshoes on a horse's foot. It is kind of that, I guess that would be the equivalent.

I imagine it's noisy, but definitely would keep it sturdy. So early Native American cultures used sledges instead of wheeled carts. Oh, I suppose if that makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah.

As long as the horses did the job, I guess it doesn't really matter. But I imagine you wouldn't be able to carry such a big load. Imagine a wheel, wheels would be able to do a much larger load than the, like a sledge.

I don't think a sledge could deal with such a big load. Because the wheels, I don't know, just it seems like that would be able to a bit more, I just, I don't know, I might be wrong, but it seems like that would be more correct. Rotary wheels are used in water turbines to generate electricity, which is kind of a similar thing really from the whole, dams and stuff, isn't it?

Dams.

So one of my girlfriends used to, she used to go and she did to buy herself a dam. How can you buy a dam? They're huge things. Like I go shopping, I've got to get some, I've got to get a dam, like what? I never understood that.

If you could afford a dam, why can't we afford to get a new house? I mean, they've got to be huge, huge amounts of money. The term wheels is slang for cars. Ooh, street, how street.

The term wheels was slang for cars in 1952. Wheels are central to many children's toys, from toy cars to spinning tops. Yay! The invention of the wheel led to the first long distance trade route.

I mean, where do you stop with that though? The invention of the wheel led to, and then anything that involves a wheel, at any point in history, after the wheel was invented, you could say the invention of the wheel led to that. So the invention of the wheel led to me getting a taxi home from my dad's in August, because the car had wheels, and if the car, if the wheel hadn't been invented, we couldn't have made that journey.

You know, how, how, how far are you going to go with that, that sentence? You know what I mean? You get me? The word wheel comes from the old English word hwll, hwll, h-w-e-l-l, hwll.

Okay, I think they made that up. Early wheels were likely made from tree trunks sliced into discs. Do you reckon? Kind of makes sense, doesn't it? That that might be how it worked.

I don't mean to be facetious, but I'm thinking that probably was, you know, someone's cutting a tree. This is so annoying. It keeps rolling away.

Every time I cut a bit off, it rolls away. Or maybe that's what it was. Maybe that's, like, people kept dragging trees, like, and it's just so hard to drag.

And then one day, someone tripped over and they pushed it, and it rolled downhill, and they thought, oh, round things roll. So that might be how it happened as well. Now we do need to just attach a seat, and we can give Jason a lift home from his dad's in 2,000 years.

Cartwheels were often painted to protect them from the elements. Okay, that makes sense, doesn't it? That's why we paint fences, isn't it? Or put creosote and stuff in, I say we, people, creosote fences. And then you got steam engines used flywheels to stabilize energy output.

The gyroscope. What's a gyroscope? A gyroscope? Is that a gyroscope? Isn't that something you listen to heartbeat with? Or is that what you use to find your way when you're in a jungle? No, that's a map. The Wheel of Fortune is a concept from ancient mythology, symbolizing fate.

I thought it was a TV program. The tread pattern on a tire helps provide traction on various surfaces. Oh, that's good.

Really? It makes sense though, wouldn't it? If there's some kind of, you know, like we have trains, but doing it the other way. So I don't know. In order to keep a car on the same trajectory, have it on a track, but instead of one big long or two big long metal rails, have lots of short ones and dents in the tires so it stays in those grooves as it turns, staying in the same place or staying on the same track instead of giving people choice to move whichever way they want.

Perhaps it wouldn't work. Early bicycles were called Velocipedes and had large front wheels. Velocipedes? Velocipedes? The Penny Farthing was an early bicycle with a massive front wheel and small rear wheel.

So that was also silly, but at least it had two wheels. Wheels are fundamental to modern cars. Wheels are fundamental to the chair I sit on because it's got wheels on it.

Wheels are fundamental to the oven in the kitchen because it's got wheels on it. Wheels are fundamental, trying to think of something else with wheels, to, um, oh, my dressing table or my, you know, set of drawers because it's got wheels on it. I mean that sentence could be used so many times.

Why, why focus on skateboards? It's just like saying without wheels skateboarding would be really boring or even more boring to watch. The word roundabout refers to circular traffic, intersections with a wheel-like pattern. Okay, well I know what a roundabout is.

I'm just a roundabout, drifting from town to town. No one can hold me down. I'm just a roundabout guy.

See, I know my songs. The golden wheel is a symbol of Buddhist teaching. Well, they have a wheel of life in Buddhism and yeah, that's it.

It's more, more I think what they're talking about there. The wheel of life and rotary wheels are key components in clock, clock, cock, clock mechanisms. Rotary wheels.

See, that's really what an amazing invention the rotary wheels were because it's set, it's just all industry made use of them, didn't it? It's just phenomenal, including clocks. The first, the first horse-drawn carts appeared around 3000 BCE. Says who? Name one person that was around.

No one. I'm less round than I used to be. Inventions like the spinning wheel revolutionized textile productions.

Okay, wheels are integral to modern robotics and mobility devices. Here's why. Trolley wheels are designed for durability in urban environments and well, it wouldn't be designed for durability on a mountaintop or in a coal mile.

Coal mile? Coal mine. In urban environment, where else would a trolley wheel be used if not in urban environment? I suppose hospitals. The invention of the wheel led to the construction of early roads.

You probably didn't need roads, did we, if we didn't have cars or horse and carts? We just needed pavements. Yeah, that's like saying the invention of television led to the, led to Netflix. But obviously, if there was no television, Netflix wouldn't have happened.

Well, television, the internet, computers and all that stuff, you know. Solid rubber tires were used before pneumatic tires. So why are you telling me that? I don't want to know that.

Why are you telling me? Spinning wheels were vital for making thread in pre-industrial societies. Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin, me, me, me, me, me. Wow, spinning wheels.

Never, never had a spinning wheel. That was an amazing invention as well, wasn't it? So treadless wheels are used for racing on smooth tracks. Okay, that's a bit of useless information.

Wheel alignment is crucial for vehicle performance and safety. Okay, great. Hoverboards, though wheel-less, often include rolling wheels for propulsion.

The wheel of time is a recurring motif in philosophy and literature. Roller coasters often rely on precision wheels to maintain speed and control. Okay.

Oh, look at this. The cartwheel is both a gymnastic move and, and, you ready? A type of wheel design. Wagon, wagon, wagon wheels are all in.

Do you remember wagon wheels, anyone? Do you ever used to eat wagon wheels? They used to be huge. Used to be bigger than my head. Now, tiny.

You never used to be able to fit one in your mouth. Used to be huge. And that was part of the thing, because they were actually the size of wagon wheels.

Not anymore. All right, I need to let that one go. It's been bugging me for about 30 years.

Alloy wheels are a popular choice for modern vehicles due to their lightweight nature. Rims are the outer edge of a wheel that hold the tyre in place. No, it's the inside of the wheel.

It's not the outside of the wheel. It's the inside of the wheel, the rim. It's the outer edge of the ring of the inside, isn't it? Not the outside.

The outside edge of wheel is the tyre itself, where the treads are. Even I know that. Early wheels were often carved by hand, making each one unique.

Car wheels often have decorative hub caps. Yeah, I know. Never really understood that.

Continuous tracks, like those on tanks, are an adaption of wheel technology. I mean, that's kind of what I was saying earlier, wasn't it? I guess that would be the kind of thing that I would have. But instead of being on a tank, it'd be just on the floor.

Just one track, which you would go in tune. I suppose a little bit like Morse code or those. Remember those things for kids where you used to be able to put a record on, and it had holes in, and it'd make a tune from those holes.

It'd be a bit like that. But nothing like that. Wheels have been used in toys for thousands of years.

Oh, the spoke tension in bicycle wheels is key to maintaining their shape. Blimey, tell me about that. I know that.

If you mess up with the spokes, the tyre goes in a weird, a weird direction, a weird shape. Carts with wheels were used to build ancient structures like Stonehenge. You don't know that? Why? Why say if you don't know it? They don't know that.

They don't know how Stonehenge was built. There's no proof. There's no photographs.

It was magic. So there. The earliest known depiction of a wheel is from a clay pot in Mesopotamia, which is, I think it's near Phoenix.

The Indian Ashoka Chakra is a symbolic wheel found on the national flag. Flywheels store rotational energy and are used in engines. I've got no idea what a flywheel is.

Cart wheels with hollow centres were designed to reduce weight and to entertain people at the Olympics. Roman roads were specifically engineered for wheeled transport. Why else would you build a road if not for wheeled transport? I actually, okay, people used to drive and used to ride on cows and chickens and stuff, didn't they? And horses and giraffes.

Tyres for wheels were made from leather before rubber was introduced. And what if everything that used rubber was originally, yeah, maybe it was everything was originally leather that then became rubber. That's what I mean.

Some wheels are equipped with sensors for anti-lock braking systems. Yep, ABS, I know about that. The invention of the wheel led to the use of pulleys and cranes.

Yeah, that's phenomenal, isn't it? Really? Not that I've ever used, could never use the pulley, I've never had to. But I imagine they were very useful. Modern wheels often include aluminum.

It's not aluminum, it's aluminum. That's the correct way. Just, I like to educate as well.

So let's have a look. Modern wheels often used aluminum or steel for added durability. And iron, even though it's spelled I-R-O-N, and I heard someone, one of the, honestly, I couldn't believe this.

They actually talked about Mike Tyson. This is one of the commentators on the fight he had at the weekend. Called him Iron, Iron Mike.

No, Iron Mike. Iron. I need to iron the clothes.

No, you don't need to iron the clothes. Iron. The R is silent.

Constantly learning, constantly teaching. Wagon wheels were often greased to reduce friction. I used to eat them, as they were.

Tractors use large rear wheels for better traction in fields. That's why. Oh, you know, you know how much time I've spent thinking about that over the years? None.

So high performance racing cars use slick tires for maximum contact with the road. Yeah, cool. Roller coaster wheels are designed to grip rails securely at high speeds.

I like to think so. The spinning motion of wheels inspired early ideas of perpetual motion machines. Yep.

That's still a dream of mine. Windmills use a wheel-like mechanism to generate energy. The Wheel of Fortune is a long-running American game show.

I know that. The invention of the wheel fascinated, the invention of the wheel facilitated urbanization and civilization growth. Can't argue on that one.

Wheels on modern luggage make travel more convenient. Yeah, I didn't realize how... Are airports bigger now than they used to be? Because I don't remember having to walk for days just to get from one end of the airport to the other. You need wheels.

You need wheels underneath your feet. It's ridiculous. I mean, they've got those escalators that just go sideways, not up or down, but just just go flat because it's such a long way.

And you know it's a long way when no one's walking. Because usually those things, they don't they don't go far and people just walk along them. It's just most people just stand because it's like you're there for like a week.

Wheels. Okay, self-driving cars rely on wheels equipped with sensors and motors. Okay, good.

The wheel is often seen as a metaphor for progress and innovation. Oh, oh, progress and innovation. Oh, so I don't know.

I think that's kind of all I've got. I'm afraid it's all I've got. So that's all the Q&A, Q&A.

Wow, I'm heading, heading forward a little bit in the week. Trivia Tuesday is now complete. Thank you for joining me.

I hope you enjoyed the ride. Remember to be kind to yourself because you do deserve to be happy. Be gentle with yourself.

Lots of love. Bye.