He was associate professor of mine, Dr. Cave Mann. very intelligent individual with a trillion dollar bank account.

According to most authorities, the wheel-and-axle combination originated in ancient Mesopotamia during the 5th millennium BC, probably originally in the function of potter's wheels. The wheel's efficient use of input energy must have been quickly understood by its inventors because it was almost immediately set to work in other contexts, most importantly in transport (vehicles) and in foodstuff processing (mill wheels). The earliest undisputed depiction of a wheeled vehicle (here a wagon -- four wheels, two axles), is on the Bronocice pot, a ca. 4000 BC clay pot excavated in southern Poland. The wheel reached Europe in the 4th millennium, and India with the Indus Valley Civilization in the 3rd millennium. In China, the wheel is certainly present with the adoption of the chariot in ca. 1200 BC, and Barbieri-Low (2000) argues for earlier Chinese wheeled vehicles, circa 2000 BC. Whether there was an independent "invention of the wheel" in East Asia or whether the concept made its way there after jumping the Himalayan barrier remains an open question.

the person who thought of it

that was me, thank you, i'll take my nobel prize now.

Some smart arse

lier it was meeeee! i swear it on the head of my partly reatarded dog.

Somebody with a backache.

Those guys on the Geico commercial.

The same person that invented the Flintstone's car, and realized it needed a little something else.

The wheel is probably the most important mechanical invention of all time. Nearly every machine built since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution involves a single, basic principle embodied in one of mankind’s truly significant inventions. It’s hard to imagine any mechanized system that would be possible without the wheel or the idea of a symmetrical component moving in a circular motion on an axis. From tiny watch gears to automobiles, jet engines and computer disk drives, the principle is the same. Based on diagrams on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of this essential invention was a potter’s wheel that was used at Ur in Mesopotamia (part of modern day Iraq} as early as 3500 BC. The first use of the wheel for transportation was probably on Mesopotamian chariots in 3200 BC. It is interesting to note that wheels may have had industrial or manufacturing applications before they were used on vehicles. A wheel with spokes first appeared on Egyptian chariots around 2000 BC, and wheels seem to have developed in Europe by 1400 BC without any influence from the Middle East. Because the idea of the wheel appears so simple, it’s easy to assume that the wheel would have simply "happened" in every culture when it reached a particular level of sophistication. However, this is not the case. The great Inca, Aztec and Maya civilizations reached an extremely high level of development, yet they never used the wheel. In fact, there is no evidence that the use of the wheel existed among native people anywhere in the Western Hemisphere until well after contact with Europeans. Even in Europe, the wheel evolved little until the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, with the coming of the Industrial Revolution the wheel became the central component of technology, and came to be used in thousands of ways in countless different mechanisms. Source from: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/wheel.htm

There is a fantastic article on it on http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/wheel.htm on which is written "The oldest wheel found in archeological excavations was discovered in what was Mesopotamia and is believed to be over fifty-five hundred years old." We know that by the time the Indo-Europeans left their homeland about 5-6000 BC, they had chariots (their language tells us so). It is possible that they invented it, or at least took it to its logical conclusion, as they are always known to the peoples they came in contact with as having wheeled vehicles. The Vedas(the earliest Hindu holy books) have the Aryans, the ancestors of the modern inhabitants of the northern part of the Indian sub-continent inc Pakistan, Nepal Bangladesh and Afghanistan) are described as having the wheel). It is probable that contact with isolated Indo-European tribes at the oases of the Taklamakan region (Tarim, Urumqi where fair-haired mummies have been found) took the wheel into China. From China and India it spread to South-East Asia. AFrica and the Americas did not have the wheel until the arrival of Europeans. The great Inca Empire, which spread almost the length of Western South America, had no wheel. Amazing considering the emount of traffic which passed along its roads and the manpower needed to defend and extend its borders.

From what I found out, it was probably invented around 8000 B.C in Asia. Even though Mesopotamian examples date back about 5000 B.C. Nobody knows if one person or several people invented it. It may have evolved in several forms. It may also have been invented around the same time in different parts of the world. Difficult to pinpoint. I think most will agree, one of the best human inventions which has showed the ingenuity of the human spirit! Vince Ravon! Musician and thinker.

Adam?

I believe the inventor of the wheel was what we commonly call the "caveman" the same guy who invented fire, interestingly. Im not sure off-hand, what region, or what year, but, Im almost positive the wheel was invented during the caveman's time.

I did. Please send me royalty payments of $10 per wheel on your cars, $1 per bicycle wheel and 50 cents for skate, lawnmower, and other small wheels.