Description
The faster you cycle, the easier it is to stay upright. If you cycle too slowly, you fall over. This is partly due to a certain force in the wheel: the gyroscopic effect.
The gyroscopic effect ensures that a spinning object does not easily want to tilt. That’s why a spinning top can keep spinning and a moving bicycle stays upright more easily.
In this exhibit, you can feel the force the spinning wheel exerts to avoid tilting. You sit on a stool. If you hold the spinning wheel and tilt it, the stool rotates with you. The wheel “doesn’t want” to tilt and exerts a counterforce. This force makes the wheel want to move sideways and causes you to spin.
This gyroscopic effect is also in a mobile phone: a spinning disc exerts a force when you tilt the phone. This force is transmitted as an electrical signal, and the phone “knows” it is being picked up.
In the same way, the effect is also used to dampen the tilting movements of ships caused by waves. This makes traveling by ship more stable and comfortable.
How does a spinning object keep us stable?
- a wheel by the handles.
- Sit on a stool.
- Hold the wheel straight forward.
- Give it a spin.
- Sit on the stool.
- Tilt the wheel a quarter turn. What happens?
