Which Direction Will It Turn? 1 OR 2 ;)

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
I went through it pretty quickly, but I got 2.
It's #1 ... if the number of gears is odd, then the resulting direction is the same as the first gear, if it is even it's the opposite.
5 groups of gears: odd, odd, odd, even, even. If they were all connected together, the resulting motion would be counterclockwise, but the groups are connected by belts. In the case of groups 2, 3 and 4, they're connected by crossed-belts, which act in the same direction as if they were gears. So group 2, 3 and 4 can be considered as a single unit consisting of 12 gears (even).

That leaves us with three groups: odd, even and even. The three are connected by straight (uncrossed) belts, so the resulting direction of motion at the end of each group will be the starting direction of motion of the next group:

  • Group #1: (odd) start ccw, end: ccw
  • Group #234: (even) start: ccw, end: cw
  • Group #5: (even) start: cw, end ccw

The resulting motion is counterclockwise in the last gear, which will point to "1" :)

Another simpler way of looking at it is to add all the gears, and then to ignore the number of crossed belts, but to add another gear to the count for each straight belt. There are 17 gears total, and we add two more (virtual) gears because of the number of straight belts, giving us a total of 19, which is an odd number... therefore the resulting motion will be in the same direction as the first gear...

EDIT: Aaaarggghhh! :mad: ... it points at #2! ... but the resulting motion is STILL counterclockwise! :D
 
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RichardO

Joined May 4, 2013
2,270
Wheeler said, "Yesterday, Feynman convinced me that it went around backwards.
Today, he's convinced me equally well that it goes around the other way. I
don't know what he'll convince me of tomorrow.

(Quote about backwards sprinkler problem presented in "SURELY YOU'RE JOKING,
MR. FEYNMAN!" by Richard P. Feynman).
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,218
Wheeler said, "Yesterday, Feynman convinced me that it went around backwards.
Today, he's convinced me equally well that it goes around the other way. I
don't know what he'll convince me of tomorrow.

(Quote about backwards sprinkler problem presented in "SURELY YOU'RE JOKING,
MR. FEYNMAN!" by Richard P. Feynman).
Read that book about 30 years ago... it was fantastic...
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Rats, I answered too quickly. I agree it's 2. It's the same direction on every odd number of gears, and there are 17.

The two reversing pulleys (not crossed, which are just like gears) cancel each other out. I think I would have thought about my first answer longer - and maybe gotten it right - if there had been only one reversal. I saw two and didn't think any more about it.
 
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