Showing posts with label gyroscope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gyroscope. Show all posts

September 18 - Happy Birthday, Jean Foucault

Posted on September 18, 2021


This is an update of my post published on September 18, 2010:


Born on this day in 1819, in France, Foucault invented the gyroscope and is known by name because of his pendulum.

 


A gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk that has an axle that is free to take on any orientation. This device helps measure or maintain orientation during navigation. For example, airplanes, space ships, and robots use gyroscopes. The Hubble telescope is in space and cannot use a magnetic compass to keep lined up properly, so it uses gyroscopes. Radio-controlled helicopters also use gyroscopes to stay level no matter whether they are rising, sinking, or zooming in some direction.



Foucault's pendulum is like any other pendulum in that it's a weight attached to a wire (or string); but it's different from other pendulums because at the top it is attached to a universal joint that allows the pendulum to rotate freely. However, the pendulum just keeps swinging in the same direction, once it's started off, unless some force acts on it--it just seems to be rotating because...


Because the Earth rotates beneath it, and the pendulum, with its universal joint, isn't forced to rotate along with the Earth and almost everything else on it.

A Foucault pendulum is usually very heavy and usually hangs on a very long wire—often from the ceiling of a tall building such as a museum or cathedral. What's cool about it is that it swings slowly and continues to swing for a long time; as the Earth rotates underneath the pendulum, it seems as if the Foucault pendulum is rotating.


In other words, a Foucault's pendulum proves that the Earth rotates (as if we needed proof other than the “rising” and “setting” of the sun, moon, planets, and stars!).

Play with gyroscopes and a pendulum today!

Or, at the very least, check out these videos:

Here is a great video that shows gyroscopes spinning and balancing and explains why they work and what they are used for. 

And just for fun, here is a video of a “human gyroscope” ride. (Did I say "fun"? I think I meant "And just for tummy-lurching viewing...")


Here is a video of a Foucault pendulum. It takes a LOT of patience to watch the pendulum knock one of these pins down. If you don't have the patience, fast forward near the end of the video. But if you have the time, the pendulum swings can be mesmerizing, a whole lot of "moments of Zen," meditational.


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March 28 – Gyroscopes Are the Answer! (What's the question?)

Posted on March 28, 2017


"What did Robert Goddard successfully use on this date in 1935 to control a rocket?"

Now we think of Robert Goddard as the one who ushered in the Space Age, because this American engineer and physicist is the guy who built the world's first liquid-fueled rocket.

During his life, the press sometimes ridiculed his ideas, and most of the public didn't know him or applaud him. But NOW we know he was a pioneer, one of the founders of modern rocketry.

Years ago I wrote about Goddard Day (March 16), the anniversary of Goddard's first successful launch in 1926. Today's anniversary occurred nearly a decade later, as Goddard tried to figure out a guidance system that would keep a rocket pointing vertically longer, and then curve into a horizontal flight. This flight reached a then-record 4,800 feet of altitude before roaring off into a horizontal flight.

His answer was a gyroscope mounted on gimbals to electrically control steering vanes that are located in the exhaust.

A what-a-scope mounted on whatsits? Electrically controlling what in what?

 A gyroscope is a sort of toplike toy or device with a wheel or disk mounted so that it can spin around an axis - but the axis can change direction. Notice that the axis is not affected by the tilting of the mounting. That's what makes a gyroscope perfect for maintaining the planned direction in a guidance system.
Goddard's gyroscope moved the vanes positioned to divert or change direction of a portion of the exhaust rushing past them during the rocket's flight.
Above, the exhaust rushing out of the
rocket's nozzle.
Below, the movable steering vanes
near the rocket's nozzle.

To find out more...check out this or this.





Also on this date:




















































Plan ahead:
And here are my Pinterest boards for:
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September 18, 2010


Happy Birthday, Jean Foucault

Born on this day in 1819, in France, Foucault invented the gyroscope and is known by name because of his pendulum.

A gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk that has an axle that is free to take on any orientation. This device helps measure or maintain orientation during navigation. For example, airplanes and space ships and robots use gyroscopes. The Hubble telescope is in space and cannot use a magnetic compass to keep lined up properly, so it uses gyroscopes. Radio-controlled helicopters also use gyroscopes to stay level no matter whether they are rising, sinking, or zooming in some direction.


Foucault's pendulum is like any other pendulum, which is a weight attached to a wire (or string), but it is attached at the top to a universal joint that allows the pendulum to rotate freely. However, the pendulum just keeps swinging in the same direction, once it's started off, unless some force acts on it--it just seems to be rotating because...

Because the Earth rotates beneath it, and the pendulum, with it's universal joint, isn't forced to rotate along with the Earth and everything on it.

A Foucault pendulum is usually very heavy and usually hangs on a very long wire—often from the ceiling of a tall building such as a museum or cathedral. What's cool about it is that it swings slowly and continues to swing for a long time; as the Earth rotates underneath the pendulum, it seems as if the Foucault pendulum is rotating.

In other words, a Foucault's pendulum proves that the Earth rotates (as if we needed proof other than the “rising” and “setting” of the sun, moon, planets, and stars!).

Play with gyroscopes and a pendulum today!

Or, at the very least, check out these videos:

Here is a great video that shows gyroscopes spinning and balancing and explains why they work and what they are used for. 

And just for fun, here is a video of a “human gyroscope” or space ball ride.

Here is a video of a Foucault pendulum. 

And this time-lapse video shows the rotation a thousand times more quickly than “real life”! 

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