Newbie driver here, why do the rpms need to be higher when in low gear? Since its a lower gear shouldnt the rpms be low as well?

Question

My brain cant seem to grasp the concept behind this sorry

In: 0

Answer 1

A smaller gear needs to rotate further to cover the same distance (on its outside edge) than a larger gear does. So in order to make the wheels of your car rotate at the same speed, a lower gear needs to make more rotations per minute, compared to a higher gear.

It is an identical process to riding a multi-gear bicycle if you’ve done that — at lower gears it’s much easier to pedal, but you need to pedal much faster to compensate. At higher gears you have to push harder, but each cycle of the pedals gets you more speed.