Four gears in different sizes. They turn in neighboring pairs.

• Inventor: Oskar van Deventer
• Mechanism: Gears (separable)
• Patents: Unknown
• Producer: Customly 3D printed
• Year: 2023
• Original Price: $0.00 USD
• Current Price: No Data

Gearu was inspired by a suggestion by Jared McComb: "Imagine you have a ring of knobs all sticking out of a flat plane. If you turn one knob, in either direction, the next knob counter-clockwise also turns with it, but the one clockwise does not. So A turns with B, B turns with C, C turns with D, etc. but more than 2 knobs never turn at once". Through some reasoning, we discovered that such mechanism would not be easily built. In our discussions, we rephrased the question as: "If you turn a knob clockwise, then its clockwise neighbor is turned as well. Ditto for counter-clockwise".
The result is a puzzle with four knobs. The object of the puzzle is to restore the cross in the center. The gears have 12, 18, 15 and 20 teeth, respectively. Whereas it is trivial to restore three of the four gears, some serious analysis is needed to restore the fourth as well.
Oskar designed two versions. One with a stable body and ratcheting turns. The second come without a solid body but turns without ratcheting.

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