Ring Gears, the Dummies Version

internal ring gear

Every once in a while we run across freelancer content that is laughable in its level of outright dumbassery. A classic example is the freelancer who, when asked a question, dances all around the answer for several hundred words and then leaves the scene with the question still unanswered. We found one of those just the other day, something by a returning DotD from the world of WiseGEEK.com, a gent by the name of Troy Holmes. Troy's post, which was (for a while, anyway) edited by the great W. Everett, was on the topic of "What Is a Ring Gear?" (formerly at niche site InfoBloom.com, now moved to WikiMotors.com).

For the record, here's a run-of-the-mill definition of a ring gear, borrowed from those nice people at Merriam-Webster:

"a gear cut on a ring-shaped rim"

We read through Holmes' post, and the word "rim" does not appear anywhere in its 400 words. In fact, there's no description whatsoever of a ring gear (you can see one type in the image above). A ring gear looks like a Hula Hoop® with teeth, which may either be on the inside (as above) or the outside. The key is that the gear is a hollow ring ("hollow" is nowhere in Troy's post, either).

Instead of informing us about ring gears, Holmes decided to share general information about gears ("early western Zhou dynasty in China...") and where they're used:

"Many ancient artifacts document the use of a ring gear configuration within gear drives for chariots, clocks, locomotives, and airplanes."

We sure would like to see those ancient locomotives and airplanes! In essence, Troy became confused by the common use of ring gears in differentials, attempting to explain them by warbling that,

"The automobile uses a gear drive that connects to the drive train of a vehicle which causes the wheels move. This gear drive is connected to the transmission, which is connected to the motor, causing the wheels to turn as the motor is accelerated."

Uhhhh, yeah: but where are the ring gears? And what on Earth does this bullshit mean?

"Most large trucks require a lower ring gear ratio for increased towing force."

And last but not least, there's this crap:

"A ring gear can be best described with a gear on a bicycle."

Dude, there are no ring gears on a bicycle!👎👎👎👎👎

Clearly, Holmes went to Wikipedia and attempted to reword what he found there... word, did our Dumbass of the Day do a lousy job of it!

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