A Brief History of Bicycle Engineering

This video explores some of the challenges in designing early bicycles and how concepts such as wheel circumferences, gear ratios, and torque were used to solve problems. I feel that the engineering of bicycles is a great way to connect some basic mathematical ideas into mechanical problem solving. Playing with properties of circles and ratios as a way to make a bike move faster builds a context to bring these geometric ideas into something physical and creative. The story also shows how creativity and engineering don’t follow a linear path. Seeing novel solutions, failed experiments, and missed opportunities give us a great framework to inspire us and guide us through new problems.