Originally Posted by wipekitty

You'll have easier gearing for going up hills in the small chainring, but assuming the same rear cassette (gearing), you will have to spin very quickly to make the bike go the same speed in the big chainring.

I enjoy numbers, and there are a few gear calculators that can give you additional data using chainring and cassette sizes. First, this one (https://www.bikecalc.com) gives you a bunch of information, including the useful speed at cadence, or how fast the bike will go given the RPM of your pedaling. Green combinations are faster/harder to pedal; red combinations are slower/easier to pedal.

There's also the Sheldon Brown gear calculator (https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html) which provides the very interesting meters of development - how far your bike will travel forward with each rotation of the pedals. You can do some math and, for example, calculate how many times you'll need to turn the pedals per mile in each gear. This is probably useful only if you're on long solo rides and need something to focus on while passing the time.