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20 May 2024 21:15
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Question |
| Asked by: |
Ricardo V. Tortul |
| Subject: |
forces applied on gyroscopes |
| Question: |
Let´s think about a flying weel with its rotation axis horizontal and falling down from a certain hight. Waht is the resulting force, due the gravitational force that is applied over de center of mass of the flying weel perpendicular to the totation axis, that appears over de system? |
| Date: |
23 September 2004
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Answers (Ordered by Date)
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| Answer: |
Harvey Fiala - 29/09/2004 02:13:27
| | | For clarity the question will be repeated: Let’s think about a flywheel with its rotation axis horizontal and falling down from a certain height. What is the resulting force, due to the gravitational force that is applied over the center of mass of the flywheel perpendicular to the rotation axis, that appears over the system.
Answer: There are no forces acting on a falling object other than the gravitational force. The object would continue to accelerate downward due the gravitational attraction. If the flywheel were initially precessing naturally due to the force of gravity before it was dropped by being supported by a pivot point at one end of the axis, then the precessional rotation about a vertical axis would cease the instant the support at the pivot point were removed. Precession is due to a torque applied to its spin axis. When it is supported at one end at its pivot point, there is an upward force at the pivot point equal to the weight of the whole object. The other part of the torque or couple acting on the flywheel and its axis is the force of gravity acting at the center of the mass of the flywheel and this force is acting downward (assume the axis has negligible mass). So now there is an upward force at one end and a downward force at the other end and this constitutes the torque that will cause precession in the horizontal plane. When the support is removed at the pivot point there is no more torque and precession will stop. Gravity will be acting equally on every particle in the flywheel and its axle.
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