With Java animations by Bill Casselman
This page has been translated into Russian.
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(Last month's web resources).
More this month: The Antikythera Mechanism,
along with two of the bronze sculptures found in the same
shipwreck, is shown on the Hellenic Ministry of Culture page
devoted to
Bronzes.
Web
resources on differential gears include text and a good picture of the LEGO
Differential from Elec 201 at Rice.
See also Description of Basic Gear Types from
Georgia Tech and Myths
regarding diffs from Randy's Ring and Pinion Service.
1. What is a differential gear?First some definitions from Gear Engineering. An assembly of intermeshing gears is called a train. In a simple planetary train two coaxial gears are connected by one or more similar gears ("pinions," also called "planets" or "spider gears") mounted on intermediate shafts. Those shafts are fixed to a carrier, or "turntable".In all the diagrams in this column, the following color scheme has been followed: the two coaxial gears are purple and green, the pinions are yellow, the turntable is blue. If all three of the principal parts (purple, green, blue) are free to rotate, the train is called a differential. In this column we will explore the functioning of differentials, and examine in particular the differential in the Antikythera mehanism. |
--Tony Phillips
SUNY at Stony Brook
