Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Three Gears are Possible

Watch more with these video collections:

If you’ve ever seen an image of three gears all interlocking or an odd number of interconnecting gears, like those gears on some British two pound (£2) coins, you’ve seen a gear configuration that does not work. However, three gears are possible. Mathematician and 3D printing enthusiast Henry Segerman shows us some creative examples in this video from Numberphile.

Segerman’s YouTube channel shares additional vids of these 3D printed gears, including a powered version of the triple gear:

the triple helix:

…and these Borromean hairpins:

All of the vids have links to his gears on Shapeways.

Next: More gear videos, including gears of all shapes and Turing Tumble. Plus: Building a House the Eco-Friendly Way with 3D Printing, 3D-printed Metamaterial Mechanisms, and Creating The Never-Ending Bloom: John Edmark’s spiral geometries.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

The Writer, a drawing machine automaton by Pierre Jaquet-Droz

Rion Nakaya

The Wintergatan Marble Machine, music made from 2,000 marbles

Rion Nakaya

The Scientific Way to Cut a Cake – Numberphile

Rion Nakaya

The Remarkable Way We Eat Pizza – Numberphile

Rion Nakaya

The Jules Verne-Themed Sanderson Orrery

Rion Nakaya

The iPhone of Slide Rules – Numberphile

Rion Nakaya

The Graceful Tree Problem

Rion Nakaya

Russian Multiplication, an astonishing way to multiply

Rion Nakaya

Recycle cardboard into anything with 3D printing, an XYZAidan demonstration

Rion Nakaya