Gyroscope Build MKII

I’ve just finished another variant of ClickSpring’s gyroscope, but this time held on two gimbals

Here is the build video.

Nice... Ahh now I know why my two attempts at his design gyroscope wouldn't work properly for me ... I can't generate enough rpm's with 1/2 meter of cotton twine as he seems to be able to... I need to get a small motor to spin it up with...?

​George

Thanks for sharing the videos, I do rather like gyroscopes, but I do think the music volume id too high compared to your voice-over.

Regards

Bill

>>I need to get a small motor to spin it up with...? <<

Or an air line and blow it round?

Very nicely done!

Steve

That reminds me that many years ago one wag I knew used to have fun using an airline to spin-up the outer of ball races . . . . . . . . . until one which must have been defective decided to let go. He was lucky not to loose a finger or two.

Edited By Brian Oldford on 31/03/2017 11:52:28

When I was a member of the G.P.O. staff at the old Met Office at Bracknell, maintaining the many teleprinters, we used to spin up ball races with the air line, then drop them on the floor. After spinning on the spot for a couple of seconds, they would "grab hold" and shoot off through the door, hit the skirting in the corridor out side, turn through ninety degrees an shoot off into the distance. Hours of fun!! Till the boss returned!

Maurice

Nicely produced videos David. I'm afraid I do agree with Bill though - better with no music.

Russell

Have you ever taken the wheel off a bike and spun it up - That's fun until it drops !!

Our physics professor during first year at university sat on a swivel chair in the lecture theatre, holding a weighted bycicle wheel by axle extensions. The wheel was then spun up with a motor so that he could demonstrate the effects. Great fun and it sunk in better than any maths on the blackboard.

Russell

Ah! That was for the less adventurous. I'd speculate that spinning up the inner is somewhat safer for the digits.

Did you ever retrieve any of those that shot into the distance after doing the ninety degrees?

Probably the best review of gyroscopes ever given. Many members of a certain age will remember this. Part 5.

Ah, that man is a very engaging speaker on engineering, i'm not sure I always agreed with him, I think I watched a video once where he showed using a similar device; where there could be no apparent cause for a central shaft to turn or spin, if another shaft on a different axis was powered, (although it does turn slowly).

And that physics didn't have an answer for it, so he said, but it seems logical, to me at least, that although no power is given to the central axis, it still moves due to the air displacement of the wheel at high speed and inertia of the fast moving axis. If he was talking about this thing moving in a total vacuum then perhaps he'd have a point if it still moved. That said, it hasn't tarnished his reputation for me.

The gimbal lock problem is a very interesting one, and probably about 10 pages worth of discussion on here.  It has actually caused problems for astronauts too.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 31/03/2017 16:10:11

Eric Laithwaite was notorious for some of his unconventional beliefs, but a great and entertaining speaker.

His force-precessed gyroscope (anti-gravity) was an interesting concept as well as his gyroscopic spacecraft drive. I still have the original 1990 article.

He may have been unconventional but so then were Galileo, Copernicus and da Vinci in their day. **LINK** is an interesting read.

* Danny M *.

He was wrong as he later admitted. For an explanation of his experiments shown in the videos using classical Newtonian mechanics see here.

Russell