The writer of that article shot himself in the foot with his final sentence.
Take a simple example. A one to one gear ratio bicycle with 6" rear wheel is very easy to pedal. Replace it with a 30" rear wheel and it is not nearly as easy to pedal.
Most of us know that If we change the gears on a bike, it can be very easy to pedal and not go very fast, or it can be very hard to pedal but go much faster.
Somewhere most of us have learned how big vs small gears or pulleys work. In the case of a tire, it is the next to the last gear in the equation. It works against the surface of the earth just as if it were the final gear.
We use the term effective, or apparent, because we understands that it changes the effect and we can see the difference on the clocks even tho we cannot put a tape measure on it.
