A machine used for making (cutting) gears is called a gear hobbing machine. The gear train below shows the essential features of the work spindle drive for a gear hobbing machine. Note that gear blank B and gear 9 are mounted on the same shaft and must rotate together at the same angular velocity. Also note the single-threaded hob behaves just like a worm gear but acts to cut gear teeth into the blank B.
(a) If the gear blank is to be driven clockwise, determine the handedness of hob A.
(b) Determine the angular velocity ratio ?7/?5 to cut 64 teeth on gear blank B.