I'm choosing to believe it's the parents causing the lock-up in that image.
this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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FACTS.
For those that don't get it
The way the gears are arranged will result in a grid lock - you won't be able to turn any of them.
Rotating one clock-wise (CW) will rotate another counter-clock-wise (CCW), and the 3rd gear will spin CW. Because the first and 3rd gear are close enough to be in contact, and they're both rotating CW, they are opposing each other resulting in them being locked
Ie. none of this will work
Yup on a 2 dimensional surface or if all three share a plane it’ll never work. Only way would be if one was extruded and the other two weren’t touching.
Where do I read more a out the theory behind this?
I don't know if there's anything specific to read. It's a basic mechanic of gears. They turn connected gears in the opposite direction. If the gear you're spinning is attached to two other gears, they'll both want to spin opposite the first gear, and the same as each other. If they're both connected they'll try to make each other spin opposite themselves too, which obviously can't happen.
see Friction.
Well I mean yeah friction but I'm sure there's a mathematic model of how gear systems work and you can mathematically prove that this doesn't work, and other interesting facts about gears and two or three or more dimensions
That really grinds my gears!
Damn, this hits way too close to reality.
Took me a second... Hahaha
Some may not realise that this setup of gears would just lock up
Some of them may be graphic designers
Or phone sanitisers.
We are all descendants of the B Arc.
The graphic designers apparently understand the education system though.
“choose any 2”
Is there a way to arrange three gears in a way that won't lock up (maybe in a line)
Any wat in which 1 and 3 are not in contact with each other. Lines work. 2 being double thickness and 1 and 3 having depth separation works.
Gears are really simple and absolutely something more people should understand
Gears are really simple...
I've got some bad news for you...
Let me guess, what an engineer considers to be simple mechanical actions are not what the general public does
I wish I was an engineer, but I have read a few mechanical engineering books with chapters on gears, and it really is a bottomless pit.
In the example, I recall seeing a method a ways back where 3 interlaced gears could rotate simultaneously. Two are linked traditionally, while one is a helical gear that slides though the teeth of the other two. It had a slick animation, wish I could find it.
Nothing is more simple than American's, I'm afraid. We've been losing a war on education for around 70 years now.
"American's", ironic
Making the 2 smaller ones not touch each other or one of the small ones not touching with the big one would do it
I can't find that picture (it was anothet textbook cover probably) but imagine the students gear as a long cylindrical gear, and the two other as shorter gears, so when you move say the parents gear it would move the students gear and that in turn will move the teachers gear and it would look fine from the side but looks impossible from the front
So .. it's not working in that school?