Gyroscope



A gyroscope is an instrument consisting of a frame supporting a disk or wheel that spins rapidly about an axis. Technically, a gyroscope is any body that spins on a movable axis, including a child's toy top and the planet Earth. A gyroscope maintains a fixed axis of spin in spite of forces of gravity and magnetic fields.

A spinning gyroscope is very resistant to any change in its orientation in space, allowing these gyroscopes to be tilted without falling. (Reproduced by permission of The Stock Market.)
A spinning gyroscope is very resistant to any change in its orientation in space, allowing these gyroscopes to be tilted without falling. (Reproduced by permission of
The Stock Market
.)

French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819–1868) invented the gyroscope in 1852. Foucault mounted a heavy wheel onto a shaft and spun it rapidly. When he then turned the shaft with his hands, the wheel resisted shifting from the plane in which it was spinning.

The gyroscope follows one of the basic laws of physics, rotational inertia. This law simply states that a body that is set spinning has a tendency to keep spinning.

Foucault's gyroscope demonstrated the rotation of Earth. The spinning wheel, which was not stationary, retained its alignment in space while Earth turned under it. Foucault also found that the force of Earth's rotation caused the gyroscope's axis to move gradually until it was aligned parallel to Earth's axis in a north-south direction.

Unlike traditional magnetic compasses, the gyroscope can indicate true, or geographic, north rather than magnetic north, which varies depending on the location of the compass. Once a gyroscope is set spinning, no amount of tilting or turning will affect the gyroscope. This stability has allowed the gyroscope to replace the magnetic compass on ships and in airplanes.



Also read article about Gyroscope from Wikipedia

User Contributions:

1
Sally Hardy
I have seen a colour photograph of a single gyroscope on your site before and wish to use it in a book chapter to help explain the process of praxis evaluation. Would you kindly let me know how to obtain permission for this please, and to recieve from you a high quality jif file of the image?
Thank you
2
jorge rebolledo
i builded an electric gyroscope, is interesting see my device for
hours, working, prescession, gyroscopic effect, etc., produce elctricity too, is an electric generator and ligth two leds.
i have photographs.
best regards
jorge rebolledo
i need to know how to construct it. One of its application in detail

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