Compound Gear Ratios

Teacher Professional Development Spring, 2002

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Simple Gear Ratio

You know how to compute the gear ratio of a single pair of gears. 8 teeth
40 teeth

Gear ratio = 40 to 8 or, simplifying, 5 to 1.

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Compound Gear Ratio

A gear box with more than one pair of gears is called a compound gear box. A compound gear ratio is the overall gear ratio of the compound gear box.

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Compound Gear Ratio

To compute a compound gear ratio, we must first find the gear ratios of each individual pair of gears.

What is the gear ratio of this pair of gears?

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Answer: 3 to 1

Compound Gear Ratio

What is the gear ratio of this pair of gears?

Answer: 3 to 1
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Compound Gear Ratio

If this axle were to make 90 rotations, how many rotations would this axle make?
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Answer: 30

Compound Gear Ratio

Answer: 10

And if this axle were to make 30 rotations, how many rotations would this axle make?

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Compound Gear Ratio

90

30

10

What does that imply about what the overall gear ratio is?
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Compound Gear Ratio

Answer: 9 to 1
To compute the compound gear ratio, we multiply the gear ratios of each pair of gears in the gear box. (3 to 1) x (3 to 1) = 9 to 1
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Compound Gear Ratio

What is the compound gear ratio of this gear box going from bottom to top? Gear ratio 3: 3 to 1

Gear ratio 2: 3 to 1 Gear ratio 1: 5 to 1

Answer: 45 to 1
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