Spinning Tops: The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890Perry, John
Science
Spinning Tops: The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890
Perry, John
Gyro compass; Gyroscopes; Tops
The first phenomenon will be observed in this case which I have already
shown you. This case (Fig. 5), {33} with the fly-wheel inside it, is called
a _gyrostat_. When I push the case it does not bow down, but slowly turns
round. This gyrostat will not exhibit the second phenomenon; it will not
rise up again if I manage to get it out of its upright position, but, on
the contrary, will go precessing in wider and wider circles, getting
further and further away from its upright position.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.]
The first phenomenon is most easily studied in this balanced gyrostat (Fig.
13). You here see the fly-wheel G in a strong brass frame F, which is
supported so that it is free to move about the vertical axis A B, or about
the horizontal axis C D. The gyrostat is balanced by a weight W. Observe
that I can increase the leverage of W or diminish it by shifting the
position of the sleeve at A so that it will tend to either lift or lower
the gyrostat, or exactly balance it as it does now. You must observe
exactly what it is that we wish to study. If I endeavour to push F
downwards, with the end of this stick (Fig. 14), it really moves
horizontally to the right; now I push it to the right (Fig. 15), and it
only rises; now push it up, and you see that it goes to the left; push it
to the left, and it only goes downwards. You will notice that if I clamp
the instrument so that it cannot move vertically, it moves at once
horizontally; if I prevent mere horizontal motion it readily moves
vertically when I push it. Leaving it free as {34} before, I will now shift
the position of the weight W, so that it tends continually to lift the
gyrostat, and of course the instrument does not lift, it moves horizontally
with a slow precessional motion. I now again shift the weight W, so that
the gyrostat would fall if it were not spinning (Fig. 16), and it now moves
horizontally with a slow precessional motion which is in a direction
opposed to the last. These phenomena are easily explained, but, {35} as I
said before, it is necessary first to observe them carefully. You all know
now, vaguely, the fundamental fact. It is that if I try to make a very
quickly spinning body change the direction of its axis, the direction of
the axis will change, but not in the way I intended. It is even more
curious than my countryman's pig, for when he wanted the pig to go to Cork,
he had to pretend that he was driving the pig home. His rule was a very
{36} simple one, and we must find a rule for our spinning body, which is
rather like a crab, that will only go along the road when you push it
sidewise.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
[Illustration: FIG. 16.[5]]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
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