3-5: Learning Goals

• Let’s explore how far different wheels roll.

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3-5-1: A Rope and a Wheel

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3-5-2: Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

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Your teacher will give you a circular object.

• Follow these instructions to create the drawing:
• Use a ruler to draw a line all the way across the page. If your object is not very small, you may want to use a separate piece of paper.
• Roll your object along the line and mark where it completes one rotation.
• Use your object to draw tick marks along the line that are spaced as far apart as the diameter of your object.
• What do you notice?
• Use your ruler to measure each distance. Record these values in the first row of the table:

3-5-3: Rotations and Distance

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3-5-4: Rotations and Speed

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The circumference of a car wheel is about 65 inches.

• If the car wheel rotates once per second, how far does the car travel in one minute?
• If the car wheel rotates once per second, about how many miles does the car travel in one hour?
• If the car wheel rotates 5 times per second, about how many miles does the car travel in one hour?
• If the car is traveling 65 miles per hour, about how many times per second does the wheel rotate?

3-5: Lesson Synthesis

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C=2πr

3-5: Learning Targets

• If I know the radius or diameter of a wheel, I can find the distance the wheel travels in some number of revolutions.

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3-5-5: Biking Distance

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The wheels on Noah's bike have a circumference of about 5 feet.

• How far does the bike travel as the wheel makes 15 complete rotations?
• How many times do the wheels rotate if Noah rides 40 feet?