Eli5: How does changing gears in cars enable them to travel faster compared to using the lower gears at the rpm?

Question

Me monkey brain tried to do a google search on my own… me monkey brain didn’t understood a thing…me monkey brain need help

In: 1

Answer 1

You can imagine the car’s transmission as a set of gears. Gears mesh together with their teeth.

If the gears have the same (or similar) numbers of teeth (or the same size), the amount one turns will be the amount the other turns.

If a small gear (or gear with less teeth) meshes with a big gear (or with more teeth) and the small gear turns, it’ll take a lot of turns of the small one to make the big one turn once. This is a “slow” speed.

If a small gear (or gear with less teeth) meshes with a big gear (or with more teeth) and the big gear turns, it’ll take less turns of the big one to make the small one turn once. This is a “fast” speed.

Hope this helps!