Sign up ×  If I am sitting on a skateboard and travel downhill,
will the velocity depend at all on the size of the wheel?  The
skateboard is only powered by gravity. There are a lot of
variables to consider. Given the best conditions, where the
surface of the road is smooth, and the tires are roughly
equivalent.  I've heard answers that larger wheels are faster
because they offer more springiness, and smaller wheels are
slower because they deform more and thus have higher rolling
resistance. Larger wheels are faster because they roll over
imperfections in the road better than smaller wheels.  I am
curious from a theoretical standpoint, does the size of the
wheel matter? That is perhaps, ignoring things like rolling
resistance. And also from a practical standpoint.
share|cite|improve this question  3 Answers 3  Well, you can't
directly compare speeds, because the vehicle has different
speeds at different times (or equivalently, at different
positions). But you can compare the accelerations. It turns out
that