Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Gears |
GearsNoun1. Wheelwork consisting of a connected set of rotating gears by which force is transmitted or motion or torque is changed; "the fool got his tie caught in the geartrain". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "gears" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mechanical Engineering | A transmission consisting of several toothed elements(gears)which are in mesh with one another, i. e. in which one member is driven by another by contact between their teeth. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A gear is a toothed wheel designed to transmit torque to another gear or toothed component. The teeth of a gear are often specially shaped in order to minimise wear and maximise the efficiency of power transmission.Different-sized gears are often used in pairs, allowing the torque of the driving gear to produce a larger torque in the driven gear at lower speed, or a smaller torque at higher speed. The larger gear is known as a wheel and the smaller as a pinion. This is the principle of the automobile gearbox. Regardless of the gear ratio, the amount of power delivered by the output gear cannot exceed the power applied to the input gear, and there is usually a loss of power due to friction.
The most common type of gear wheel, spur gears, are flat and have teeth projecting radially and in the plane of the wheel. These gears can be fitted only to parallel axles. Bevelled gears have angled teeth, allowing torque to be transmitted between non-parallel but intersecting axles. If the axles are skewed, i.e. non-intersecting, then a worm gear can be used. This is a gear that resembles a screw, with parallel helical teeth, and mates with a normal spur gear. The worm gear can achieve a higher gear ratio than spur gears of a comparable size.
Torque can be converted to linear force by a rack and pinion. The pinion is a spur gear, and mates with a serrated bar that can be thought of as a spur gear with an infinitely large radius of curvature. Such a mechanism is used in automobiles to convert the rotation of the steering wheel into the left-to-right motion of the steering rods.
A crown gearA crown gear is a special form of bevel gear which has teeth at right angles to the plane of the wheel, allowing it to drive axles at right angles to its own. A variation of this mechanism is used in the differential gear, a complex arrangement of gears that transmits power to two axles moving at variable speeds, such as those on a cornering automobile.
A contrate wheel has teeth at a right angle to the axis and meshes with a straight cut spur gear or pinion (used in clocks, some instrumentation, wind-up toys and Meccano).
Simple gears suffer from backlash, which is the error in motion that occurs when gears change direction. When moving forwards, the front face of the drive gear tooth pushes on the rear face of the driven gear. When the drive gear changes direction, its rear face is now pushing on the front face of the driven gear. There is slight 'slop' in any gearing where briefly neither face of the driving gear is pushing the driven gear. This means that input motion briefly causes no output motion. Assorted schemes exist to minimise or avoid problems this creates.
In some machines it is necessary to change the gear ratio to suit the task. There are several ways of doing this. For example:
The tooth form used for most applications is involute but there are other tooth forms such as cycloidal (used in mechanical clocks) or rack (used in automobile steering).
- manual gearbox ('stick shift' in the US)
- automatic gearbox
- derailleur gears
- hub gears (also called epicyclic or sun-and-planet gears)
- continuously variable transmission
- infinitely variable transmission
See also:
- Antikythera mechanism
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Gear."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Since track cyclists are unable to switch gears during the course of a race, choosing an initial gearing becomes very important. At it's basic level, a change in gearing is a trade off of acceleration versus top-end speed. A smaller gear allows quicker acceleration, or 'jump.' This can be crucially important in races where getting a gap on an opponent can make or break the event. On the other hand, a larger gear generally gives a higher top-end, which is paramount in pursuiting/time trialing, but also important in standard scratch/points races in which the pace will be high.Ideally, for most mass start races, a balance is achieved to allow the cyclist a good jump, but a high top-end. Without a good jump they would be gapped by their opponents when they jump, and without a good high end they'll find themselves unable to get around their opponents when the pace stays high.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Gears."
Synonyms: GearsSynonyms: gearing (n), geartrain (n), power train (n), train (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Gears |
| English words defined with "gears": automatic drive, automatic transmission ♦ bevel gear, break, bust ♦ disengage ♦ engage, engaged, epicyclic gear train, epicyclic train ♦ fall apart ♦ gear, gear case, gear mechanism, gearbox, geared, gearing, gearset, gearshift, gearstick, geartrain, grinding ♦ hob ♦ in gear, intermeshed ♦ meshed, Miter wheels ♦ out of gear ♦ phosphor bronze, pinion and crown wheel, pinion and ring gear, Pitch point, power train ♦ reverse ♦ shifter, Skew bevel gearing, Skew gearing, Spiral gearing, Spur gearing, synchromesh ♦ train, transmission, transmission system, tribology ♦ ungeared, unstuck ♦ wear, wear out, wheelwork. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "gears": cone of gears ♦ involute gears ♦ planetary gears ♦ quick change gears ♦ stabilising gears ♦ train of gears. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Eh. He's just grinding his gears! I mean even he's not dumb enough to disobey the great Optimus again (Beast Wars: Transformers; writing credit: Bob Forward; Lawrence G. DiTillio) Same principle, four gears forward, one reverse (How to Steal a Million; writing credit: George Bradshaw; Harry Kurnitz) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | "Nebraska sand hills - where we stripped some gears" White 1 and 1/2 ton truck Astro party of C.V. Hodgson. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Conversion. Farm implements to cargo winches. Hobbing a gear for a cargo winch for the Maritime Commission. This machine in the converted Midwestern plant of a farm implement manufacturer was used to produce gears for tractors and other farm equipment. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Production. BT-13A ("Valiant") basic trainers. Landing gears for "Valiant" basic trainers at Vultee's Downey, California plant. At the Downey plant is made the BT-13A ("Valiant") basic trainer--a fast, sturdy ship powered by a Pratt and Whitney Wasp engin. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Geared to defense. A 16-inch gun carriage elevating rack has its gears cut by a workman in an eastern arsenal. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The old Kenyon's johnnycake flour mill in Usquepaugh is run by water power. The waterwheel is underneath the mill and by means of these two gears its power is brought into the mill. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Reduction gears. Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Corporation. East Hartford, Connecticut. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Dynamic Gear, Amityville, New York. Gears I. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Gears" by Margus Kyttä Commentary: "Gears at "Auto ja korjaamo" fare in Helsinki 2003." | "Elevator shaft 2" by Taylor Dixson Commentary: "Close up of elevator gears and cables." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Then the motor roared up and the gears clicked and the great red truck rolled heavily away |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Companies looking to sell in Uzbekistan should consider making their cars available in both manual and automatic gears. (references) | |
The perception that automobiles with automatic gears are harder to service and maintain than those with manual gear cars is slowly fading. (references) | ||
It is a revolutionary device, rotating the gears by 180 degrees and allowing total flexibility of fastening points and easy installation on all car models. (references) | ||
Economic History | Singapore | Current manufacturing activities range from engine components, landing gears, mechanical components to helicopter transparencies. (references) |
Portugal | Favored by the operation of a local mature oils industry and an overall stable demand from the feed sector, soybean imports, total and from the U.S., will tend to be up in CY-2000 as the industry gears up toward a normal processing activity. (references) | |
Philippines | Economic growth in 2000 was spurred mainly by the private non-agricultural sector as the government changed gears from "pump priming" to fiscal tightening and agricultural output moderated after 1999's rebound from drought-depressed harvests. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | We are moving from an Industrial Age built on gears and sweat to an Information Age, demanding skills and learning and flexibility. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Gears" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Gears" is used about 258 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 100% | 258 | 18,412 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| India | Shanthi Gears Limited |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "gears": bevel gears ♦ cone of gears ♦ conformal gears ♦ crossed gears ♦ gears with intersecting axes ♦ hyperbolic gears ♦ involute gears ♦ parallel gears ♦ parallel helical gears ♦ planetary gears ♦ quick change gears ♦ rolling contact gears ♦ shift gears ♦ skew axis gears ♦ skew type gears ♦ sliding contact gears ♦ spur gears ♦ stabilising gears ♦ train of gears ♦ variable gears ♦ worm gears. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "gears": Mitchell-gears. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
gears | 708 | speedometer gears | 19 |
spur gears | 90 | small gears | 18 |
plastic gears | 71 | metric gears | 18 |
worm gears | 68 | nylon gears | 18 |
helical gears | 60 | bike gears | 18 |
bevel gears | 51 | mechanical gears | 15 |
ring and pinion gears | 42 | spline gears | 15 |
cam gears | 37 | shimano gears | 15 |
transmission gears | 37 | gears motorcycle shift | 14 |
richmond gears | 36 | custom gears | 13 |
planetary gears | 30 | spiral bevel gears | 13 |
miniature gears | 28 | xeno gears | 12 |
precision gears | 28 | compact gears orbital | 12 |
blood sweat gears | 27 | gears motorcycle shifting | 11 |
bicycle gears | 25 | gears hobby | 11 |
differential gears | 24 | metal gears | 11 |
pulley and gears | 23 | gears picture | 11 |
rear end gears | 23 | aem cam gears | 11 |
internal gears | 23 | shifting gears | 11 |
gears shaft | 20 | pinion gears | 10 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "gears"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 齿轮 (gear). (various references) | |
Danish | tandhjulsudveksling (gear, gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), pitting (pitting, pitting life). (various references) | |
Dutch | tandwieloverbrenging (cluster, counter gear, gear, gear drive, gear transmission, geared power, gearing, gear-system, intermediate wheel, toothed gearing, wheelwork). (various references) | |
Finnish | hammaspyörävoimansiirto (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), hammaspyörävaihde (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), hammaspyörävälitys (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork). (various references) | |
French | engrenage (gearing). (various references) | |
German | Getriebe (bustle, drive, gear, gear unit, gearbox, gearboxs, gearing, hurly burly, mechanism, movement, transmission, works). (various references) | |
Greek | σύστημα τροχών (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, train, wheelwork), σύστημα οδοντοτροχών (gear train, gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, train, train of gears, wheelwork), μετάδοση οδοντοτροχών (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), οδοντώσεις (gear marks, gear streaks, gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, serration, serrations, toothed gearing, wheelwork), οδοντοτροχοί (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork). (various references) | |
Hungarian | fogaskerék-áttétel (gearing, train). (various references) | |
Italian | trasmissione ad ingranaggi (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), butteratura (pit, pitting, pitting life, scale pit). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 変速 (shifting gears). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | へんそく (irregularity, shifting gears). (various references) | |
Korean | 장치 (Console, device, devices, gear). (various references) | |
Manx | bocs (box, box for gears, container). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | earsgay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | transmissão por engrenagem (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork), engrenagem (gear, mesh), comando por engrenagem (gear drive, gear transmission, geared power, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork). (various references) | |
Spanish | transmisión por engranajes (gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, wheelwork). (various references) | |
Swedish | kuggväxel (gear train, gear transmission, gearing, gear-system, toothed gearing, train, train of gears, wheelwork). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "gears": gearshift, gearshifts. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "gears": dogears, footgears, headgears, regears. (additional references) | |
| |
"Gears" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: gabars, gaeas, geans, geard, gearn, geas, geass, geaus, geert, Geertsma, Gehrls, geir, Gemara, geors, gera, geras, Gerassi, gerc, gers, gesres, giers, glars, gnars, gora, goras, grear, greas, greers, gwar. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "gears" (pronounced gi"rz) |
| 3 | -i" r z | adheres, appears, arrears, auctioneers, conventioneers, bandoliers, beers, budgeteers, careers, cashiers, cavaliers, cheers, clears, disappears, ears, electioneers, engineers, fears, financiers, frontiers, gondoliers, hears, interferes, marketeers, mutineers, nears, peers, piers, pioneers, premieres, premiers, profiteers, queers, racketeers, reappears, rears, Sears, smears, sneers, souvenirs, spears, Speirs, spheres, steers, summiteers, veers, viers, volunteers, years. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: agers, rages, sager, sarge. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-r-s" | |
-1 letter: ager, ages, ares, arse, ears, eras, ergs, gaes, gars, gear, rage, rags, rase, regs, sage, sear, sera. | |
-2 letters: age, are, ars, ear, era, erg, ers, gae, gar, gas, rag, ras, reg, res, sae, sag, sea, seg, ser. | |
-3 letters: ae, ag, ar, as, er, es, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-r-s" | |
+1 letter: aggers, agrees, angers, argles, argues, augers, barges, cagers, eagers, eagres, eggars, gagers, gamers, gapers, gasher, gasper, gasser, gaster, gazers, gerahs, glares, graces, grades, grapes, grates, graves, grazes, grease, greasy, greats, gyrase, jagers, lagers, larges, marges, pagers, parges, ragees, ranges, retags, sagger, sagier, sanger, sarges, sauger, seggar, sparge, stager, swager, targes, wagers, yagers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Company Usage 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
