The Gears of a Bicycle

The sketch assists students in determining how the pedal and rear wheel gears affect the rotation rate of the rear wheel. The sliders "pedals" and "rear" set the number of teeth on the gears. The sliders "links" represents the number of chain links that have left the gears; increasing values indicate rotation of the pedal and rear wheel. The motion of the rear wheel can best be determined by observing the dark spoke. The lighter spokes will appear to move at a different rate due to a perceptional and sampling phenomenon.