Science In Our World

Science Wizz Kids Home Page

Welcome to "Wizz Kids". A site to support the profile Mathematics & Science for our feeder schools Opportunities to engage in a number of Science based initiatives that might be available.

Gears

Aim: This is to illustrate the use of gears to speed up, slow down or change direction.

Equipment: The equipment includes... 

  • hand drill.
  • egg beater.
  • Mickey clock.

Method: Identify the driving gear and the driven gear of the egg beater and hand drill. Which is larger, the driving gear or each driven gear? Rotate the driving gear and observe the motion of each driven gear. Which moves faster, the driving or the driven gear? Is this system of gears designed to be fast or powerful? Count and record the number of teeth on the driving gear and the number of teeth on the driven gear. Use the handle to rotate the driving gear slowly through one complete turn, while your partner counts and records the number of turns completed by the driven gear. How many times does each driven gear turn for each rotation of the driving gear? Does the number of teeth on each gear seem to affect the way the gear system works? In what ways? (These instructions will need some modification for grade 3-4).

Background knowledge: C.