Name: 🔬#MESExperiments 42: Gyroscopes Can Rise Upwards AND Downwards
Uploaded: 2024-10-28T04:23:20+00:00
Duration: 4 min 55 s
Description: In #MESExperiments 42 I show that a gyroscope can precess upwards on its own, but if a counterweight is added, it can precess downwards while torquing the counterweight upwards. I have combined my ear

1 year ago

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Health & Science Education gyroscope mes experiments mesexperiments mesexperiment physics experiment STEM gyro anti-gravity

In #MESExperiments 42 I show that a gyroscope can precess upwards on its own, but if a counterweight is added, it can precess downwards while torquing the counterweight upwards. I have combined my earlier Experiments 2 and 9 to better illustrate this striking and quite mind-boggling finding.

The gyro without the counterweight has a starting position of a very steep 62 degrees from the vertical. The gyro with the counterweight starts almost horizontal with a tilt of 2 degrees below the horizontal. As the gyroscope gradually loses its spin speed, the precession speed increases and this somehow causes the gyro to torque literally against gravity.

As demonstrated in Experiment 1, in order to observe these phenomena, the precession friction needs to be very small, as in the case of the rotating base and hanging string setups. However, as demonstrated in Experiment 27, high spin friction can also cause faster rising. While the gyro torques against gravity as it loses its spin speed, it is important to realize (as demonstrated in Experiment 3), that the actual act of rising results in no greater spin speed loss as compared to simply leaving the gyro spinning stationary on the ground.

As the counterweight gyro loses spin speed, the precession circle gets further and further away, indicating it's "regaining its inertia", as demonstrated in Experiments 5, 6, and 7. As the gyro rises back to its starting position, the string starts to unwind itself which causes the gyro to force precess in the opposite direction. And this forced precession causes the gyro to rise above its starting position, and its counterweight drop below, as demonstrated in Experiment 20 by Eric Laithwaite.

Original experiments:

- Experiment 2: Gyroscope rises on its own: https://peakd.com/mesexperiments/@mes/mesexperiments-2-super-precision-gyroscope-precesses-upwards-even-at-super-steep-angle
- Experiment 9: Gyroscope with counterweight rises downwards: https://peakd.com/mesexperiments/@mes/mesexperiments-9-gyroscope-with-counterweight-hung-on-a-string-rises-downwards-magicx1000

Timestamps:

- Spinning up the gyroscopes: 0:00
- Gyros in starting positions: 0:09
- Gyros torquing against gravity (8X speed): 0:52
- Gyro with counterweight rises downwards: 1:11
- Gyro without counterweight rises upwards: 1:53
- Gyros at their peak positions: 2:04
- Counterweight gyro precesses further away as spin speed lowers: 2:19
- Gyroscope on the left starts falling: 2:43
- Gyro on the left falls: 3:02
- Counterweight gyro precession gets smaller as it loses more spin speed and rises back to starting position: 3:26
- Gyro unwinds itself in the reverse direction and rises upwards above starting position: 3:44
- Precession axis is now closer to the counterweight: 4:21
- Gyro is back to starting position: 4:48