1. Gyroscopic phenomena

The properties of a rapidly spinning top are not intuitive; each of us has been amused or bewildered by the evolutions of the toy sold under the name of gyroscope, and by the bizarre reactions felt when it is held in the hand, rotor thrown. And yet, these properties can be logically deduced from the laws of rational mechanics, with which we are directly confronted on a daily basis. This paradox stems from the fact that our everyday experiments generally involve only low absolute angular velocities, which do not give rise to gyroscopic phenomena.

The behavior of gyroscopic steering equipment can generally be understood using the concepts of gyroscopic precession 1.2