The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works

Subject: The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:45 pm

Why does a spinning object "want" to maintain its angular orientation? Many physics texts fail to explain this, and instead simply assert that it happens and you should accept it. But that always left me hungry for a real explanation. Here it is:

A gyroscope is at rest in a zero-gravity environment. It consists of a simple smooth (frictionless) disc, and a metal pin running through the center for giving it a spin.
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image1

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image1

The disc is not spinning. Using your finger, you push down on a spot near the edge of the disc.
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image2

As expected, the disc tilts around its center, easily changing angular orientation.
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image3

Now we get the disc spinning at a high rate, and do the same experiment again. This time the whole disc moves down, without changing orientation, even though we pushed it near the edge. How did it do that?
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image4

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image4

Now let's do the experiments again, but this time use a red marking pen. Unlike your finger, the marker leaves red ink wherever it pushes an object.
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image5

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image5

With the disc not spinning, we try the experiment. The disc changes orientation easily, as expected, and the red spot on the disc shows where it was pushed.
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image6

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image6

Now we do it with the disc rapidly spinning. As soon as the marker touches the disc, a red circle appears all the way around the disc. This red circle shows all the points where the disc is being pushed down. Naturally, no angular orientation change will occur when the disc is being pushed on all the points of a circular path which is centered on the disc. The whole disc will move down, just as you should expect it to move when you push it down on all points of the red circle!
The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image7

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works Image7

© Copyright 2001 Darel Rex Finley. All rights reserved. This article, with illustrations and copyright notice intact, may be freely distributed for educational purposes.
http://alienryderflex.com/gyroscope/

Yet another useless 'explanation.' I've never read a rational description of a gyroscope.

Quote :: no angular orientation change will occur when the disc is being pushed on all the points of a circular path which is centered on the disc.

But all those points are NOT being pushed AT THE SAME TIME, so his 'explanation' is null and void, fucker!

That's exactly what I thought.

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works

The Gyroscope Demystified — How It Works

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