🔍 Key Concepts

• Identify how many stages of speed reduction are shown between the input and the final (large) gear. • Notice whether the small gears are on the same shaft or on separate, articulated (quill) shafts. • Review the definitions and sketches of locked train, articulated, nested, and two‑pinion single reduction gear arrangements in your marine engineering text.

💭 Think About

• Trace the power flow: start at the smallest pinion and follow which gear it drives, then what that gear’s shaft drives next, until you reach the large bull gear at the bottom. • Ask yourself: do you see one big reduction stage only, or two distinct reduction stages with an intermediate shaft? • Compare this drawing with the typical textbook diagram of an articulated (quill shaft) double‑reduction gear: what features look the same?

✅ Before You Answer

• Count the number of meshes between the input shaft and the large final gear; that tells you single vs double reduction. • Check whether there is an intermediate shaft carrying two gears (one meshing with the input pinion, one meshing with the bull gear). • Confirm that your chosen option’s definition matches both the number of stages (single vs double) and the shaft arrangement (locked train vs articulated vs nested) shown in the illustration.