Week 7, #17

This assignment is to "blog" about some aspect of technology. I'd like to bla, bla, blog about "CVT." You know, the "Continuously variable transmission." Well, if you don't know, welcome to the club. I, too, didn't know what it was, so I'll share the results of my inquiry with you. (And I think you'll soon see what it has to do with "technology.")

Wikipedia lists 9 variations of the CVT, but defines them as follows:

"The continuously variable transmission is a transmission in which the ratio of the rotational speed of two shafts, as the imput shaft and output shaft of a vehicle or other machine, can be varied continuously within a given range, providing an infinite number of possible ratios."

Further, it says, "The CVT should not be confused with the 'power split transmission' (PST), as used in the Toyota Prius and other hybrid vehicles that use two or more inputs with one output, despite some similarities in their function." (See Wikipedia: Continuously variable transmission.)

What prompted my curiosity is the fact that Toyata states, in its Prius literature, that the only transmission available in that car is the CVT. How is it that Wikipedia says the Prius tranny is not a CVT, yet Toyota says it is?

Could it be that Wikipedia is incorrect? Which, of course, brings me to the aspect of this that deals with "technology." To wit, is the fact that the very Wikipedia article that states that the Prius tranny is not a CVT, yet later on lists "New automobiles equiped with CVT" and includes the Toyota Prius, an error?

Does this prompt us to ask which statement in Wikipedia is in error? And this is the technology issue: "What is the reliability of the information found in the multiplicity of 'sources' on the Internet?"

I discovered the answer to the question on this specific subject, but challenge you to find out for yourself.