What causes gyroscopic motion (rotation)?
Gyroscopic motion is due to conservation of momentum (angular). If you don’t understand angular momentum then it will take a lot of explaining. Just think of linear momentum…..If you try to stop a recking ball from moving forward you will have to apply a force in the opposite direction. The ball will still resist even though you are applying a force (seems obvious i know). In terms of angular momentum the direction that you would feel resistance would not be opposite to the way you push , but it would be in some perpendicular direction (weird I know). Gyroscopes can be used to tell pilots whether they are upside down, sides ways, etc. This is because The Force on the gyroscope due to gravity will try to rotate the gyroscope, but by the nature of the gadget the gyroscope will resist in a way that allows it to point in the original direction. This is harder to word than i thought…Hopefully its not a confusing mess.
