A gyroscope is a device used to sense and maintain direction, designed by the law of conservation of angular momentum and constructed by a wheel whose central axis can be rotated. When the gyroscope starts rotating, because of the angular momentum of the wheel, it tends to resists the change of directions. The purpose of this experiment is to measure and verify the relationship of the angular moments between spin and rotation, and to compare the changes in the advancing speed of rotation when the disk is at various spin rate and the weighing mass is at different position (different moments).

 
Load Mass
The rate of the gyro precession is governed by the weight, shape, and the speed of the rotor. The torque act on the rotor varies with the mass located at different position of the central axis and this helps us to determine the properties of the precession.

Motor
To make the gyroscope spinning around its axis.

Rotor
The spin motor is attached to the rotor and the power is supplied by a DC power supply. To determine the correlation between the speed of the rotor and the precession. Adjust the applied power to change the speed of the rotor. Stick a reflective tape to the rotor and measure  the spinning speed of the rotor by using 8748 timer, therefore the precession angular velocity of the gyroscope can be determined.

Bubble Leveler
To indicate whether a surface is level or not.

Horizontal Adjusting Screw
Adjust three ground pads by hand to reach the horizontal level.

DC Power Supply
supply Electrical power for motor. Adjust the output range from 5~15 V to alter the rotational speed of the gyro.

Video 

Simple Rotary Motion Experiment

Department of Physics (Digital Archive Project of NTU General Physics Laboratory)
National Taiwan University