We report on the erosion of flat linoleum "pebbles" under steady rotation in
a slurry of abrasive grit. To quantify shape as a function of time, we develop
a general method in which the pebble is photographed from multiple angles with
respect to the grid of pixels in a digital camera. This reduces digitization
noise, and allows the local curvature of the contour to be computed with a
controllable degree of uncertainty. Several shape descriptors are then employed
to follow the evolution of different initial shapes toward a circle, where
abrasion halts. The results are in good quantitative agreement with a simple
model, where we propose that points along the contour move radially inward in
proportion to the product of the radius and the derivative of radius with
respect to angle