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تسجيل

The Gyroscope

المؤلف:  GEORGE A. HOADLEY

المصدر:  ESSENTIALS OF PHYSICS

الجزء والصفحة:  P-66

2025-11-03

532

The centrifugal force of a rotating body gives it great stability of position. This is shown by the action of an ordinary top, or better by a gyroscope -a wheel with a heavy rim rotating on an axle, the ends of which are pivoted in a ring. When this wheel is rotating at a high speed, it shows a strong resistance to any force that would change its plane of rotation or the direction of its axis.

Advantage is taken of this gyroscopic action in the placing of the flywheels of engines used on shipboard: they are so located that their axes extend crosswise of the ship, thus tending to reduce the sidewise rolling motion. In a Brennan one rail car (Fig. 1), stability is secured by means of a pair of gyroscopic wheels rotating in opposite directions, with their axes extending across the car.

FIG. 1. - Brennan One-rail Car By courtesy of The Book of knowledge.