Can someone please explain how the clutch and gears work in a car as I’m learning and I can’t quite understand it
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If we built a car with the engine directly connected to the wheels, we’d have problems, since for the engine to spin, the wheels would also have to. So if you stopped your car, the engine would stop spinning and die. The solution to that (in a manual transmission) is to have a break between the engine and wheels, and put a clutch in that break to let you disengage the engine.
The oversimplified version of how a clutch works: There’s basically a disc attached to the output shaft of the engine, and another disc attached to the input shaft of the transmission. Under normal operation, these two discs are pushed together hard enough that they don’t slip against each other, making it behave as though the whole thing was a single drive shaft. When you push the clutch pedal in the car, these discs are pushed away from each other. Push the pedal a little and they’ll rub together, transferring only a little of the engine’s power into the transmission. Push the pedal far enough and the discs stop touch properly, completely disconnecting the engine from the transmission.
The transmission is simply a set of different sized gears on two different shafts. Shifting changes which gears are connected to each other, which changes the mechanical advantage of the engine to the wheels. Mechanical advantage explained: systems like gears, levers, pulleys etc. exchange force for distance. You feel this on a bike. In high gear you don’t have to pedal as fast as a low gear, but you have to push harder. A car transmission does the exact same thing.
If you want to understand the specific workings of a manual transmission, you’re better served by seeing pictures or animations of how the parts interact than reading a description. [This video has a decent animation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=devo3kdSPQY), or you could look for gifs in Google or whatever.
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