FACTUAL REFERENCE
GEARS

A gear translates rotation through tooth-to-tooth contact. Gear ratios turn one
motion into another at a predictable relative speed and torque.

In information terms, gears are useful because they embody relationships.
If one wheel makes N revolutions while another makes M, the mechanism physically
maintains that ratio whenever it moves.

That is why gears appear naturally in clocks, astronomical mechanisms, mechanical
calculators, counters, and indicators. A quantity does not have to be stored as a
binary number to be represented mechanically. It can be represented as angle,
position, or the state of numbered wheels.