There are trundle wheels whose drive wheels have circumferences of exactly 1 metre so that a simple counter that counts each whole revolution. I used one in my teaching. The wheel simply had a small "clicker" that clicked each time the wheel rotated once, so the counter was the "carbon-based life form" that pushed the wheel along the ground. My classes and I used it to measure distances 
up to 7.25 km! (That maximum value was the ditance between two towns measured along the highway.)

Over the years, I wore out several of those trundle wheels and had to buy new ones from educational equipment suppliers.


On 2006 Jan 28 , at 2:19 AM, Pat Naughtin wrote:

Recently, ...  I found  ... a trundle wheel. ... it measures in metres.

Four digits means that it can be used to measure up to 999.9 metres. I tested it over a measured (with a tape) twenty metre path and it seems to be accurate enough for approximations.
...
The little wheel that drives this device is exactly 142 millimetres in diameter ... (and) ...  a circumference of 446.1 millimetres ... an odd value.


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