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21 November 2024 21:21
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Welcome to the gyroscope forum. If you have a question about gyroscopes in general,
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Question |
| Asked by: |
Justin Liu |
| Subject: |
Reduction in tilting force applied on spinning gyro? |
| Question: |
Hello, I'm new to the physics of gyroscopes (being only a High-School student) and I am planning to incorporate gyroscopes into my science project. I was wondering, if a solid object falls at a slant, like this slash "/", and a gyroscope is placed at the middle of this object, will precession reduce the falling rate of the object? If so, how much of a difference is made? I know that precession would also affect the horizontal motion of the object, but I'm mainly interested in what happens to its vertical motion. If you know a lot of this phenomena and have the time to help, please E-mail me personally :D I appreciate all help. |
| Date: |
26 October 2004
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Answers (Ordered by Date)
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| Answer: |
Justin Liu - 26/10/2004 00:27:06
| | | Sorry, I was not very specific in the question above. When the gyroscope is placed on the side of an object, it is not directly in contact with the object, but perhaps connected via a different material medium. The gyroscope will have the bottom of its spinning axis held in place, but not very strongly (hopefully, the gyroscopic inertia of the gyro will keep it spinning in a horizontal plane). The top of the spin axis will be allowed to move freely, but there will be limits on how far it will move. When a body falls, ideally, the gyroscope will continue spinning in the same horizontal plane (due to gyroscopic inertia - spinning object's tendency to remain spinning in the same plane), but with this slant, the medium will push against the top of the spinning axis of the gyroscope. I want to know if precession may lessen the downward force caused by the force due to gravity on that object.
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| Answer: |
jack aubry - 13/11/2004 19:17:23
| | | the answer is no, precession will stabilise the gyro which in turn will allow friction to play a greater role in arresting the descent(in my opinion)
I have no qualifications in this but I have thought about it a great deal for many years
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