The wheel and axle is a very popular simple machine. It looks like a kind of lever. The wheel and axle is a simple machine made of a large wheel secured to a smaller wheel which is called an axle.

One of the most common wheel and axles is something that most people use everyday. It is the tire of a car or truck. On most of these, the wheel and axle acts as a lever rotating around the fulcrum or the center point. On doing this the wheel rolls.
 

A wheel and axle is made up of a few objects. In the picture the small rod which is the axle, is stuck rigidly to a large wheel, which is the fan blades, so that when the rod that is stuck to the wheel turns, the wheel would also turn.

The wheel is probably the single most important invention of all time. The oldest wheel was found in a place that is now called Mesopotamia. It is believed to be over fifty-five hundred years old. Before that time, people did not have wheels to move heavy objects.

A Ferris wheel is a good example.