Looney Gears is a strange eccentric planetary gearing system. Whereas normal planetary gear systems are symmetrical, this one has no symmetry whatsoever.

This particular set of gears was the result of a challenge by Oskar to Andreas Röver in 2006. Andreas found this nice set of all-primary-numbers gears which is about 0.01% exact.

When Oskar made the Looney Gears, he made the conjecture that there do not exist exact solutions for this type of eccentric planetary gear systems. After seeing Oskar's video of Looney Gears, Bill Somsky proved that there are actually huge numbers of exact solutions for Looney Gears. These exact solutions are now called "Somsky gears". Somsky's discovery and proof showed that Oskar's conjecture (that there are no exact solutions) is wrong.

Watch the YouTube video of Looney Gears.
Watch the YouTube video of the Somsky Gears.
Watch the animation.
Read at the Shapeways Forum.
Read more at the Non-Twisty Puzzles Forum.

Please contact Oskar directly if you are interested in obtaining a fully colored and assembled sample of this puzzling object.