Lesson 11: Building a Trundle Wheel

Let’s build a trundle wheel.

11.1: What Is a Trundle Wheel?

A tool that surveyors use to measure distances is called a trundle wheel.

  1. How does a trundle wheel measure distance?

  2. Why is this method of measuring distances better than the methods we used in the previous lesson?

A picture of a trundle wheel.

  1. How could we construct a simple trundle wheel? What materials would we need?

11.2: Building a Trundle Wheel

Your teacher will give you some supplies. Construct a trundle wheel and use it to measure the length of the classroom. Record:

  1. the diameter of your trundle wheel

  2. the number of clicks across classroom

  3. the length of the classroom (Be prepared to explain your reasoning.)