Question |
| Asked by: |
Blaze |
| Subject: |
Has anyone ever tried a semi flexible disc instead of a solid one? |
| Question: |
The idea is that you may actually be able to "see" the forces acting and get a better idea of what is happening. If the disc were too flexible you wouldn't have enough gyroscopic effect for the system to work. If the disc were too stiff you wouldn't see any flexing from the forces. So it would have to be somewhere in between. I don't even know what kind of material to try for this as it would have to be flexible, strong and be able to take some fairly good rpms.
Has anyone tried this?
Blaze |
| Date: |
9 May 2012
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Answers (Ordered by Date)
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| Answer: |
Nitro - 09/05/2012 10:16:54
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| | Dear Blaze,
On this very website click the “Gallery” tab. Then click the “RIGB Christmas lecture” tab. Then scroll down to No 18 “Low level explanation.....” There you have a nice demo of a gyro that is probably better than you had in mind. Good old Prof. Laithwaite has done the work for you.
Kind regards
NM
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| Answer: |
Blaze - 09/05/2012 19:30:20
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| | Awesome Nitro. Thank you, that is EXACTLY what I was looking for. It proves another bit of my theory.
Blaze
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| Answer: |
William Nelson - 16/06/2012 18:55:46
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| | This is good and it's the first reference I've seen on the web to this idea, which has always intrigued me. I have a blog post explaining precession in these terms and I've always wanted to build a physical demo. I do wish the video and text description of this experiment were longer, however, and used the standard pedestal configuration; it is a bit brief to be really pedagogical. For a longer take on the same subject here is my own post-http://www.letstalkphysics.com/2008/01/gyroscopes.html
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| Answer: |
Glenn Hawkins - 25/06/2012 19:30:28
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| | Hi Blaze,
That was a very good question.
I’ve done the experiment a good while ago. I still have the little wheel. I did it, because the videoed experiment of Professor Liftwate’s flexible wheel was too fast to get a good read on the actions. I cut a five inch wheel from a 3/4 “ plywood with a jig saw. I connected a dozen flexible wires at equal distance around the rim with screws. On each wire I tied a metal washer, all about equal distance. I drilled a hole through the center of the wooden wheel and forced a bigger drill bid tightly through the hole, connected the bit to a drill, turned in on and began tilting the drill back and forth. What did I learn? It acted just like the professor said it would act. The only difference was that I could see it happening.
The wires and washers, at the vertical top and bottom, resist being tilted, lagging behind the tilting of the wheel. After they rotate ¼ of rotation they react at a right angle in the horizontal plane. Pulling the wheel towards rotating in than plane. Everything was just as we expected it to be.
Cheers,
Glenn
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| Answer: |
Nitro - 26/06/2012 07:19:08
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| | Dear Will Nelson (and others),
Oops! Ortiginally posted in wrong place.....
You have stumbled across the problem with forums:- Most of the answers to life, the universe and everything are probably revealed in the web’s forum and blogs but no one, apart from a few who have long since gone mad, has the time or the patience to read all the forum answers amongst which these secrets lie.
Long, Oh! So long ago, I posted what I think is the easiest way to understand and to visualise how precession happens:-
Use your imagination to chop away almost all of a large gyroscope’s disc until you are left with a small slice. This slice may be now conveniently be thought of as a rigid pendulum. Let your right arm be that pendulum and be allowed to hang straight down to represent that pendulum. Imagine now, raising your arm straight out behind you. Imagine dropping your arm and allowing it to swing downwards like a pendulum. Notice the axial angle of your shoulder joint. Now imagine turning your body 90 degrees to the left as the pendulum drops so that the axis of the pendulum, your shoulder, is now at right angles to the original direction of your arm’s swing. Your arm, the pendulum, being free to swing in any direction, will choose to carry on in its swing in the same direction as it started to swing before you changed the way your body faced. Observe the axial angle of your shoulder now. Voila! Precession!
Kind regards
NM
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