🔬#MESExperiments 19: A Gyroscope is an Inverted Pendulum Without Electronic Sensors (DTube)

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2020-01-03 23:58

In #MESExperiments 19 I demonstrate that gyroscopes are a special form of inverted pendulums in that they don’t need any electronic feedback loop controls to balance or rise against gravity all on their own. This is one of the most fascinating capabilities of gyroscopes but is almost as fascinating and perplexing as how the entire world has missed out on this feat of gravity defying proportions. Although gyroscopes and spinning tops have always been inverted pendulums in principle, it is this particular experiment that shows that they are also inverted pendulums in form and appearance as well.

I demonstrate this inverted pendulum property of gyroscopes by showcasing two experiments involving a custom low friction gimbal setup on a string: the first with a light counterweight in which the gyroscope "forces its own precession" and the second with a heavy counterweight that requires manually forcing the precession initially.

The first experiment involves placing a light 6.60 gram counterweight with a 4.60 gram and 55 mm long stem onto a 148.68 gram gyroscope that is placed in a custom gimbal setup hung via a string to minimize rotational friction. The gyro in this case is able to raise the light counterweight on its own.

The second experiment, @ the 13:35 mark of this video, is similar to the first but involves a much heavier 148.68 gram counterweight. The weight is too much for this current gyro to raise on its own initially so I have manually torqued the gyro by slightly (i.e. torque over-unity) turning the gimbal to "hurry the precession" which magically causes the counterweight to rise upwards.

In both cases, and once in their risen inverted position, the gyroscope is able to magically balance the counterweights against gravity!

The original unedited versions of these experiments are listed below:

Light counterweight test:
Heavy counterweight test:

In order for the gyroscope to lift the heavy counterweight on its own, a larger "spin angular momentum" (i.e. combination of larger mass and faster spin speed) is required; or just to lower the amount of counterweight torque by moving the string support more in the middle, as in #MESExperiment 9: https://steemit.com/mesexperiments/@mes/mesexperiments-9-gyroscope-with-counterweight-hung-on-a-string-rises-downwards-magicx1000

The gyro and counterweight weight and length measurements are shown in this video: