DIWALI ASSIGNMENT

Professor:Manish K Gupta
Course: SC107
CALCULUS
Fall 2016
DA-IICT

Made By:

Dhruvesh Asnani
ID: 201601423

November 18,2016

1
 Gyroscope

1 Introduction
In our daily life we come across rigid bodies that rotate about an axis changing its direc-
tion. Eg: A spinning top,a turning bicycle wheel,a gyroscope,earth’s precession,etc. These
motions can be very difficult and complex to analyse. Often they are very non-intuitive...

2 How non-intuitive it is!

See the figure below.

This is model gyroscope which consists of a flywheel mounted in a suspension frame

that allows the flywheels axle to point in any direction. One end of the axle is supported
on a pylon at distance l from the center of mass of the gyroscope.
Suppose that flywheel is not spinning. The figure above shows the FBD of the sys-
tem.
Net force on the system is zero.

~net = ~0
F (1)
This is because:
~N ormal = −F
F ~gravity (2)
~gravity
But there is net torque on the system due to F
τgravity = mgl (3)
So flywheel will fall down..That’s Intuitive..
But what will happen if we spin the flywheel with some angular velocity and arrange
it in a position as in the above figure..
It will not fall!!

Very NON-INTUITIVE!!

2
3 How beautifully NATURE deals with it!!
Suppose the angular velocity of the flywheel is ω
~ s.

In this case, the center of mass of flywheel rotates about the vertical axis passing
through the contact point S of the axle with the pylon with angular velocity ω ~ p . This
velocity is called precessional angular velocity.

Here, ω
~ s is along x − axis and ω
~ p is along z − axis.The FBD of the system is as follows:

Gyroscopic Approximation:
Here we shall assume that ω ~ p and ω
~ s << ω ~ s and ω
~ p are nearly constant. These two
assumptions are collectively known as gyroscopic approximations.

~net = ~0.
Here also, F
This is because:

~N ormal = −F
F ~gravity (4)
FHor = mlω2 (5)
The direction of torque due to gravity is inside the plane of paper.
The spin angular momentum of the flywheel is:

~Lspin = Icm ω
~s (6)

3
 Note:
Equation (6) is only valid in the gyroscopic approximation. If this approximation
is not made, ~Lspin would also have a component in the jˆ direction since the flywheel is
rotating about its vertical axis as the center of mass rotates in a circle about the vertical
axis. This component of the spin angular momentum would be

0
(~Lspin )y = Icm ω
~p
0 is the moment of inertia of the flywheel with respect to an axis parallel to the z−
where Icm
axis passing through the center of mass of the flywheel. In the gyroscopic approximation,
the ratio of the magnitudes

|(~Lspin )y | ωp
≈ << 1
|(~Lspin )x | ωs

and so (~Lspin )y need not be considered. In any event, (~Lspin )y = Icm

0 ω is constant in time.
p
Thus in the gyroscopic approximation the only change to the angular momentum
about S is the change in direction of the spin angular momentum about the axis passing
through the center of mass perpendicular to the wheel.

Due to τ~gravity , the direction of ~Lspin and hence ω

~ s changes.

From the figure,

∆ωs = ωs ∆θ (7)

(∵ We have assumed ωs to be constant)

Hence,
∆ωs ∆θ
= ωs (8)
∆t ∆t

Taking lim on both sides,

∆t→0
dωs dθ
= ωs (9)
dt dt

4
 α = ωs ωp (10)
Due to this angular acceleration α
~ , the system exerts an active gyroscopic torque
given by

τactive = Icm ωs ωp (11)

The direction of τ~active is determined by right hand thumb rule.

τ~active = Icm (ω ~ s)
~p × ω (12)
But, if we observe from the frame of reference of the system, then the system expe-
riences a reactive gyroscopic torque in the direction opposite to that of active gyroscopic
torque having same magnitude as that of active gyroscopic torque.

τ~reactive = −~
τactive (13)
τ~reactive = Icm (ω ~ p)
~s × ω (14)
This τ~reactive balances τ~gravity and the flywheel does not fall.
i.e.

Icm ωs ωp = mgl (15)

mgl
ωp = (16)
Icm ωs

4 References
1. web.mit.edu/8.01t/www/materials/modules/guide16.pdf

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVvnEeDb3aA

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession