On Mon, Oct 15, 2001 at 08:16:50AM -0700, Michael R. Clements wrote:
> Am I the only person who finds this shorter vs. taller terminology confusing?
>
> Does shorter mean a larger numeric ratio (lower gear), or a smaller numeric
> ratio (higher gear)?
>
> Over the years I think I've heard people use these terms both ways, which is
> why it's confusing.
I can only speak for the shorter vs. longer gearing. I read an
explanation in a bicycle repair book that the "length" of a gear was
the distance covered by the rear wheel from one revolution of the
crank.
The gear ratios in car transmissions really confused me at first,
since a low number means a longer gearing. They're just the ratio of
input speed to output speed, but it's more intuitive to me to use the
reverse, so you can multiply input speed by the gearing to get output
speed. I guess it's not done that way because it would result in all
gear ratios being between 0 and 1.
--
john@idsfa.net John Stimson
http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
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