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9 May 2024 22:27
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Welcome to the gyroscope forum. If you have a question about gyroscopes in general,
want to know how they work, or what they can be used for then you can leave your question here for others to answer.
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Question |
| Asked by: |
Nitro MacMad |
| Subject: |
Does a gyro lose mass in precession? |
| Question: |
Dear friends and shed dwellers,
THE STRANGE EFFECTS OF PRECESSION
There has long been debate here as to whether a gyro effectively (please note the word effectively) loses mass in precession.
Though some effects of normal (Newtonian) mass rotation can be observed in the classic terrestrial gyro on an Eiffel tower (sorry to disappoint, Glen, but the “terrestrial” has no “wild” explanation here, it’s just to show that the gyro is somewhere that is able to have gravity act upon it) these effects are much less than would be expected for the gyro’s mass and can be reasonably explained as being caused by the non gyrodynamic mass of the gyro’s cage.
Perhaps an easier demonstration of the effective loss of mass in precession is to fast frame photograph the acceleration from standstill to full precessional speed of a released gyro – it is impossibly fast! And I mean really impossible. There is no way for any (Newtonian) mass to be accelerated under gravity as fast as a heavy gyro released into precession. It is as near instant as makes no difference.
Oh! Incidentally, the reason that a gyro drops slightly (generally; the slower its rotation in relation to its mass/diameter the greater the drop), then largely recovers, is not because it is somehow sucking energy out of gravity to power its precession but because of the hefty instantaneous bearing load drag being precessed (remember Nitro’s first law) at the moment of release because of the near infinite acceleration.
Kind regards
NM
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| Date: |
8 November 2007
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