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Old 28th Apr 2005, 20:48
  #19 (permalink)  
Chiplight
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: CT, USA
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Dave, from your website,
If we put two counterrotating gyroscopes on the same rigid axle and again apply an upward force on the West the opposing North and South force will cancel each other. The axle can freely yaw but there is resistance to pitch and to roll.
No, I think you are incorrect in the last sentence. See my previous post above.
The angular momentum of a spinning disk is represented by a vector pointing along the axis of spin.(right-hand rule?) Two disks spinning in opposite directions have vectors pointing in opposite directions, so they sum to zero. What remains is the inertial mass of the static masses, but no rotational momentum. Like I said, Chuck did the experiment and conceded this was correct.

If you put two gyroscopes on the same axle, spinning in opposed directions, you would have no way of knowing that you were holding a gyroscope by feel alone. There would be no resistance to movement, although intuitively we think there should be.

Last edited by Chiplight; 28th Apr 2005 at 21:25.
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