I tried looking online but have a hard time finding out exactly what the number on the gears of the car represent. What’s the difference between 1-3 or 2-5?
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imagine the gears like the wheel on a tricycle, where the pedals are attached to the front wheel. a larger wheel will go faster and further for every pedalling revolution. a smaller one would make going up hills easier. if the wheel was too big, you wouldn’t be able to get going on a hill. and if the wheel is too small, you’d be pedalling too fast to maintain a decent speed.
on a regular bicycle with gears, the effective wheel size changes with the gears. a very low gear would be smaller than the tire size. and a very tall gear would be several times the size of the tire. the tallest gear would be impossible to start going on an uphill, and very hard to get going on flat ground. so imagine the tire size changes with the gears.
cars are similar in how a manual transmission or gearbox works. in most cases the engine is only functional between 1000 to 6000 rpm so you need a low gear to get going, and a high gear for better efficiency at highway speeds.
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