The change in gear ratios really does help\! We know that the amount of torque supplied to each half-shaft is equal and determined solely by the input torque on the middle differential gear due to the handle chain. {latex} \large \begin{equation} F = \frac{\tau}{r} \end{equation} {latex}We decreased the radius for the wheel sprocket on the differential, which corresponds to a larger force, and this increased force is palpable when I rowed on our newly modified erg.

Our bungee cord set-up is supposed to look like this: !bungeesetupJune14-2013.png|border=1,width=800!
That diagram is about as crude as our current set-up, swathed in steel cable and masking tape: !image (2).jpeg|align=center,border=1,width=400!
!image (3).jpeg|align=center,border=1,width=400!
!image (1).jpeg|align=center,border=1,width=400!


By turning the wheel to stretch the bottom bungee cord as much as we could, we estimated, crudely, that the maximum displacement of the #41 chain is 12 inches. Therefore, the top bungee cord has about 12 inches of pretension in order to take up all possible slack in the chain