The activity of wheel-throwing a ceramic vessel is governed by a number of physical forces. These are the rotational kinetic energy (expressed in terms of angular velocity and the moment of inertia) and manual pressures. Given the importance of the potter's wheel worldwide, and the frequently postulated socio-cultural meaning of wheel-throwing in particular, foundational research on the physics behind wheel-throwing has been under-represented, and there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between speed of wheel rotation, lifting speed and the orientation of clay pores or inclusions. The speed of rotation is highly relevant as different wheels can achieve different speeds. Thus, knowing the speed during manufacture may allow scholars to reconstruct the original device, manufacturing technique, and perhaps even the potter's level of skill. Two contrasting views can be found in the literature: a) there is a direct positive relationship between these variables, and that the angle of the inclusions/voids can therefore tell us about the wheel's speed at the time of making the pot and hence the device used; b) because pots are never thrown in one single motion, the angle of inclusions/voids is an averaging of all actions executed by the potter, and thus cannot provide meaningful inferences about speeds or device. Experiments with professional potters were devised to explore the relationship between these variables. They show that the interaction between the various physical forces, clay and potter is complex, leading to a large variance even within the work of a single potter, with finger pressure recognized as a major influencing variable. It is clear that angles of inclusions or voids cannot be used to project backwards to the wheel speed, lifting speed, skill level or device used.

抛陶瓷器皿的活动受许多物理力的支配。这些是旋转动能（以角速度和惯性矩表示）和手动压力。鉴于陶轮在世界范围内的重要性，尤其是经常假设的抛轮的社会文化意义，关于抛轮背后的物理学基础研究的代表性不足，并且缺乏对两者之间关系的理解。车轮旋转速度、提升速度和粘土孔隙或夹杂物的方向。旋转速度是高度相关的，因为不同的车轮可以达到不同的速度。因此，了解制造过程中的速度可以让学者重建原始设备、制造技术，甚至可能是陶工。s 技能水平。在文献中可以找到两种截然不同的观点：a）这些变量之间存在直接的正相关关系，因此夹杂物/空隙的角度可以告诉我们制造锅时的车轮速度，从而了解设备用过的; b) 因为罐子永远不会在一个单一的运动中被抛出，夹杂物/空隙的角度是陶工执行的所有动作的平均值，因此不能提供关于速度或设备的有意义的推论。设计了专业陶艺家的实验来探索这些变量之间的关系。他们表明，各种物理力、粘土和陶工之间的相互作用是复杂的，即使在单个陶工的工作中也会产生很大的差异，手指压力被认为是一个主要的影响变量。