An example of a device with such characteristics would look something like this in this A Gyroscope is a device that depending
ending on its composition can fulfil two functions
configuration a mass is forced to oscillate with a frequency of several kilohertz because
of this when the system has been rotated the oscillating mass will experience a Coriolis
force that will move it to the left or to the right depending on the direction of the
vibration and similar to accelerometers this displacement in turn can be used to
calculate the force experienced by the mass so we would have all the necessary elements
to calculate the angular velocity of the system while the characteristics of these
gyroscopes make them ideal for a large number of applications.
They have a disadvantage although they are designed to measure angular velocities
linear accelerations will also exert a force on the oscillating mass and therefore if the
system is exposed to large accelerations their accuracy would be compromised.
But fortunately, this is where the third type of gyroscope we will discuss comes in
optical gyroscopes which can detect angular velocities completely independently of the
linear accelerations of the system these types of gyroscopes work on the basis of the
“Sagnac effect”.
In the same amount of time however if the system is rotating this will no longer be the
case the beam emitted in the same direction as the rotation of the system will have to
travel a longer distance before reaching the end of the path since the end point will
basically be moving away from it on the contrary the beam traveling in the opposite
direction of the rotation of the system will travel a shorter distance because the end
point will be getting closer to it this difference in the distance travelled by the light
beams is the key to calculating the angular velocity of the system at this point you may
be wondering if a variation in travel time was already generated with each beam
individually then why do we need two beams to calculate the angular velocity the reason
is that since we are dealing with the speed of light which remember is approximately
300000 kilometres per second it would be extremely difficult to make a system precise
enough to accurately measure the time from the time that light is emitted until it reaches
the end point since this occurs virtually instantaneously since light is an electromagnetic
wave with a certain frequency and wavelength by having two beams of light traveling
in opposite directions, they interfere with each other generating a resulting beam with
new characteristics the characteristics of this new beam are related to the phase
difference between the beams that produced it and therefore to the difference in
distances travelled ultimately allowing us to calculate the angular velocity this type of
gyroscope is not only highly accurate but also quite reliable because unlike the previous
ones it is.
to provide information about the variation of the orientation of a system with respect
to a reference axis or to provide information about the rate at which the orientation
of a system varies when it is rotating that is its angular velocity gyroscopes are used
in a wide range of applications including our phones aeronautics video game consoles
and robotics more over our own body has a built-in gyroscope known as the
vestibular system which gives us information about our orientation and helps us
maintain our balance that is why in this video we will see how a gyroscope works
including mechanical , Coriolis effect vibratory and optical gyroscopes.
Let's start by looking at how mechanical gyroscopes work and to do that we need
to understand what torque and angular momentum are in a system with an axis of
rotation when we apply a force at a point away from the axis a torque is generated
which rotates the system and is represented as a vector parallel to the axis of rotation
in addition to this when a system is rotating it has an angular momentum as well
which is also represented by a vector parallel to the axis of rotation and is determined
by two factors first the moment of inertia of the system which depends on its shape
and mass distribution and second the angular velocity which tells us how many
degrees the system rotates during a defined period of time understanding this we can
rely on the operation of an accelerometer to understand the operation of this first
type of gyroscope .
In the previous context we learn how of newton's laws could be used to know the
linear acceleration of a system. Newton's first law tells us that when the net force
applied on an object is equal to zero its acceleration is also zero and
consequently its velocity will remain constant similarly if we have a system which
is capable of rotating on an axis and the net external torque acting on it is zero the
total angular momentum of the system will also remain constant.
On the other hand Newton's second law tells us that the force applied on an object
is equal to its mass multiplied by the acceleration generated as a result of the
applied force similarly for rotating systems the torque of the net force acting on a
system is equal to the rate of change of its angular momentum which in this case is
also equal to the moment of inertia multiplied by the angular acceleration having
clarified this we can finally focus on the practical applications of these principles in
mechanical gyroscopes.
1
The first application makes use of the spatial rigidity of a rotating object if we rotate
a disk at a certain angular velocity and there are no other forces that generate any
torque on the disc its angular momentum will be conserved because of this it will
continue to rotate on the same axis and therefore maintain its orientation. This was
used by Leon Foucault who mounted a disc on a card and suspension or gimbal
which allows free rotation of the centrepiece in this system by rolling the centre
disc at a high speed or in technical terms applying a large angular momentum to it
its orientation will not change even if the rest of the system does in ancient times
when GPS did not exist, they were extremely useful as an alternative method
orientation because unlike compasses which use the magnetic fields of the planet
orient themselves and indicate north this type of gyroscope could be oriented
any direction desired and its accuracy would not be affected by variations
magnetic fields.
Although of course its limitation is that the friction of the axis however small would
eventually reduce the angular momentum of the disk and similarly the torque
transmitted by the suspension however small would eventually change the original
orientation anyway in spite of all this it is still a valid method for particular cases
at present an example of this is gravity probe be a satellite used to test albert
einstein's theory of relativity and whose gyroscopes could theoretically rotate for up
to fifteen thousand years which by the way is extremely complex and a perfect
subject for a future video now going back to the topic.
The second practical application of mechanical gyroscopes is to determine the speed
of a system and to do this they take advantage of a physical phenomenon called
“precession” in simple terms precession is a circular motion that is generated
when a rotating object is affected by a force that causes it to change its
orientation. An example of this would be a bicycle wheel hanging at one end of its
axle which if it were at rest would fall due to gravity however by possessing an
angular velocity this counter-intuitive phenomenon known as precession occurs first
it is able to stay in its original orientation without falling and second it begins to
rotate around the supporting point to understand why precession occurs. let's take
a closer look at what happens to the wheel respect to its supporting point the weight
will generate a perpendicular torque that would cause the wheel to fall to the ground
however according to the second law the torque will generate a small change of
angular momentum in its direction which in this case has no vertical component by
adding the initial angular momentum with the small change due to the torque the
resulting angular momentum and thus the wheel's axis of rotation will have slightly
changed its orientation horizontally without falling due to gravity.
Moreover, since it is always true that the torque generated by the weight will be
perpendicular to the angular momentum of the wheel then the wheel will roll
continuously forming a circumference. This relationship between the torque applied to
a rotating object and the rotation resulting from precession is what we can use to
determine the angular velocity of a system more specifically. We can have a system like
this with a rotating disc at the centre which in turn will be suspended by torsion bars
these will allow the suspension supporting the disc to rotate but will also impose a
resistance that will increase proportionally to the torque which means they allow us to
of
use the angle of torsion to calculate the applied torque similar to how springs allow us
to
to use elongation to calculate the applied force this particular system is made to detect
in
in movements in the z-axis if the central disk is rotating and the whole system is rotated
about the z-axis the precession will generate a torque on the torsion bar and the frame
will rotate slightly marking a value on a conversion scale allowing the angular velocity
of the system to be known it's not the most intuitive system in the world but that makes
it even more impressive from a design standpoint .
In addition, these systems have one major limitation since their operation originally
depends on the moment of inertia of the rotating disc which as I mentioned at the
beginning depends on the mass of the disc it is impossible to reduce the size of these
systems without affecting their accuracy or rotation time.
we had to start from something the next type of gyroscope we will discuss is the Coriolis
effect vibrating gyroscope this type of gyroscope is one of the most widely used
nowadays as they can be manufactured in really small sizes at a low cost and therefore
can be integrated into all kinds of electronic devices such as your phones to understand
the principle of their operation, we must understand what Coriolis acceleration is…
Imagine a particle rotating around a point at a constant angular velocity the particle's
trajectory will form a circle with a radius r1 and the particle will have a tangential
velocity of one now if that particle moves radially to a distance t2 the size of the circle
defining its trajectory will increase and therefore its tangential velocity will also have to
increase to continue rotating at the same angular velocity in other words if the
tangential velocity increases then there is an acceleration which is known as Coriolis
acceleration in honour of its discover this acceleration by the way can be calculated as
minus two times the angular velocity of the particle multiplied by the speed at which it
moves radially values that we can then replace in the classic formula of force equals
mass times acceleration thus if we have a system in which we know the value of the
mass the velocity perpendicular to the axis of rotation and the applied force we can
calculate its angular velocity.
2