Ball Bearing

What is Ball Bearing?

A component with hardened steel spheres rolling between an inner and outer ring, replacing high-friction sliding contact with much lower rolling friction, letting a shaft spin smoothly under load.

The five clues

Engineerdle #53 described Ball Bearing with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A component that replaces one kind of friction with a much smaller kind.
2. 02Small hardened spheres roll between two rings, carrying the load between them.
3. 03A cage keeps them evenly spaced so they never grind against each other.
4. 04Skateboard wheels spin as freely and long as they do largely because of one inside each wheel.
5. 05The component with rolling spheres between two rings that lets a shaft spin with minimal friction.