Gyroscope explanation without maths.

[tonyfoale]

Gyroscopic effects are usually described in physics book by means of mathematical derivations. These rarely give an easily visualised physical understanding of the phenomenon. Originally for my own satisfaction I developed an explanation in purely physical terms, although I have no problem with the maths. That would have been in the early 1960s and since then I have used this explanation in articles, books and seminars with universal thanks for clearing up a "mystery" in easily understood terms.

In my post about why we use crowned pulleys( http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/w...-wheels-55770? ) Moby Duck requested that I post the gyro explanation here.

To save a bunch of time typing it here directly, I have uploaded a PDF file of an appendix from my book on motorcycle chassis design (www.tonyfoale.com ) to dropbox. It can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmsewdc84ughc0w/A4.pdf?dl=0

[Ralphxyz]

Tony, have you tried to download your posting?

It is a very confused download could you please just post the .pdf file not the entire .html!!

Ralph

[Moby Duck]

Thanks Tony. The link downloaded fine for me. I have always understood why leaning into corners on a motorcycle took you around the corner without having to turn the wheel, but I didn't even consider that motorcycle designers might take this into account, especially the alignment of other rotating components on the bike. It makes perfect sense that they do, and obviously to get the best results when racing absolutely everything must be considered.

[tonyfoale]

Tony, have you tried to download your posting?

It is a very confused download could you please just post the .pdf file not the entire .html!!

Ralph,
I have only posted the PDF. It works fine when I try it.

[tonyfoale]

Thanks Tony. The link downloaded fine for me. I have always understood why leaning into corners on a motorcycle took you around the corner without having to turn the wheel, but I didn't even consider that motorcycle designers might take this into account, especially the alignment of other rotating components on the bike. It makes perfect sense that they do, and obviously to get the best results when racing absolutely everything must be considered.

There is a lot more to leaning and steering a bike than just the gyro effects but this is not the place to go into all of that.

[Ralphxyz]

Tony, yes one can click on your link and view your .PDF and it works .
But if you try to save it so that you can view it later it downloads as .html
which on the next viewing does not display correctly so the document is unreadable.


When you try to view you get:


Try saving and viewing.

Ralph

[tonyfoale]

Tony, yes one can click on your link and view your .PDF and it works .
But if you try to save it so that you can view it later it downloads as .html
which on the next viewing does not display correctly so the document is unreadable.

I think that you are using Chrome's save, in which case it will offer you .html. Look for a download button in the top right corner, that should save as a PDF.

[mklotz]

There is a lot more to leaning and steering a bike than just the gyro effects but this is not the place to go into all of that.

I'm sure that's true but, nevertheless, if one is familiar with riding a motorcycle, it provides an easy way to remember the arrangement of the terms in the vector cross product equation that describes the interrelation of those terms.

[Ralphxyz]

Thanks Tony, finally saw the "download" button now I can have a ready reference.

Ralph