3 replies to this topic

[knite]

Ive been wondering lately, as im fairly close to a pilots license Ive become familiar with how gyroscopes function (passingly). Now, for those of you unfamiliar, a quick overview, the best way to describe gyroscopes is looking at a top. You spin the top, and even though it has only a very small contact point, it can stay balanced, this is basically what gyroscopes do in airplanes, they are spun at thousand of rpms, and when spun become stable and dont like to move around, in this way, the airplane can be considered to move AROUND the gyroscopes, and in turn show the pilot a variety of readings such as his attitude, turn coordination, pitch, etc. Now, while at the Smithsonian a while back, they had this funny little semi experiment where a person would sit in a chair and hold a bicycle wheel with two handles, the wheel vertical between the handles able to spin freely, and they would spin the wheel at a decent speed (enough to get a noticable gyroscopic effect.), the person would be sitting on a swivel chair, and if he turned the wheel physically so it was no longer vertical, the chair would spin to compensate (because gyroscopes like to remain stable.) I didnt really think on it at the time, but I recently began to wonder if this little effect could be used to provide some sort of motive force, (particularly in space, where gasless propulsion would be nice.). I was wondering if anyone knows much about this, if this effect has already been described, and whether or not this is possible, any info would be helpful really.

[armrha]

Gyroscopes are used in space a lot, but you can't get anything more from gyroscopes then what you put into them. For example, gyroscopes on the international space station are spun up or slowed down to deposit a little energy to correct the orientation of the space station. This can let us change where we are facing by basically just moving kinetic energy around, but it can't let us move forward without ejecting some mass.

[eternaltraveler]

I could perhaps think of a scenario where you could get a net force in one direction if the velocity of the rotation is fast enough to induce a noticeable mass change in a particle beam in a circular track.

If it were decelerated at one point on the track, and accelerated at the opposite point the beam would be more massive on one side of the track making for a net force in one direction.

It would just be like swinging a ball around on a string, only with the ball magically becoming heavier during one half of it's rotation. The amount of energy required to derive any useful motion would be phenomenal though.

Maybe I’m missing something. I’m tired


Hmmm, wouldn't just accelerating said ball at one point and decelerating it at another create a net torque

[rhaze]

No you cannot get linear motion from a gyro or multiple ones.

I was thinking what if you had 4 gyros centered around your vehicle and all where spinning in the direction you wanted to move. You then flip a switch and all are turned so their spin is perpendicular to your movement, since the gyros resist turning back your vehicle should move forward.

The problem is that the inertia a gyro has, does not affect its mass or center of mass, which means the center of mass of your system does not move and so the system does not move.