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Gear Ratios

Lesson Objectives:
  1. Students will learn about the different sizes and types of gears.
  2. Students will understand how linking two gears of different sizes affects the final speed.

Materials:
Let's Get Started!
Have the students follow the videos below with gears from the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit to follow each activity.

LEGO makes gears of different sizes, each having a unique number of teeth. Here is a video that introduces the various gears:
What does it mean to gear up and down? How do you make a gear spin faster or slower by connecting it to other gears? 
These next two videos discuss the calculations involved in gear ratios, as well as show several examples of gear trains.
Check out these videos to learn about worm gears and bevel gears.
Note: All the videos on this page were made by Dr. E. Visit his YouTube Channel  (Dr. E's Lab) for more educational videos.
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