How do the gears on a car work and what do they do?

Question

My Dads tried telling me loads of times but I really don’t understand them.

In: 5

Answer 1

Are you talking about the actual, toothed-wheels inside the transmission? The best approach I’ve seen to answer that question is an old (1936) video titled [Spinning Levers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOLtS4VUcvQ). This video starts from the concept of a “lever” and builds it up into a simple, yet functional, manual transmission.

Or, are you talking about the “gears” controlled by the lever marked “PRNDL” in your car? To understand that, you’ll need to understand the need for transmissions in general, and we can move on to automatic transmissions in particular.