Gears 2

A gear is made from a toothed wheel and an axle.

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We are going to consider this diagram in two ways. 

1. The 15 tooth gold gear on the right is the driving gear.  

  • The 20 tooth grey driven gear turns more slowly than the driving gear, since one turn of the gold gear has turned the grey gear through only 15/20th of its cycle.
  • However, if we call the push from one tooth of the gold gear "one push", then each revolution of the grey gear has 20 pushes, so that the force has been multiplied. 
  • This gear train acts as a force multiplier. 
2. The grey gear is now the driving gear.  
  • The gold driven gear completes one revolution before the grey one does.
  • However, the number of pushes per axle revolution has decreased from 20 to 15. 
This arrangement acts as a speed multiplier.