The Ultimate Gearing Discussion

[luke91]

OK, I really don't know that much about gearing, and the ratios that describe them, so please enlighten me.  

For drag racing;
why do most people like to have a lot of close gears?  I understand the theory that it keeps you in the peak of the power band, but why doesn't anyone try this:

Three gears:

1st gear:  Short, to get the revs up quickly.  Shift at peak            torque.  
2nd gear:  Very long.  Picks up right where 1st gear left off, but keeps you in the peak torque range for a long time.  Rpm's increase very little, while speed increases a lot.  
3rd gear: same as 2nd, if needed at all.  

I feel like such a loser because I don't know anything about gearing, but why wouldn't this work?

Also, how do you describe gear size, and where one gear connects with the other.  Let me put it this way:  

1st gear remains constant, and there are two differrent 2nd gears:

you could have a very long or very short 2nd gear, and both could join with 1st at the same point.  Let's say in either case, shifting from 1st to 2nd at 7,000 rpm will land you at 5000rpm in 2nd.  How do you explain this, even though the two 2nd gears are different sizes?  I'm confused.  

--luke