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Gear
The "gear" of a bicycle relates to the mechanical advantage of the whole drive system. In a low gear, the pedals are easy to turn, but you have to spin very fast to get any speed up. In a high gear, the pedals are hard to turn, but you don't have to make them turn very fast to make the bicycle go fast.
The gear of a bicycle depends on the ratio between the sizes of the front and rear sprockets, and the size of the drive wheel. If the bicycle is equipped with planetary gears, they also affect the gear. There are several ways of designating gears numerically. See gain ratios, gear inches, and development.
For information on using your bicycle's gears, see my article: Everything You Wanted to Know About Shifting Your Bicycle's Gears, But Were Afraid to Ask
