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es Gyroscop Y– – A HISTOR
, toys you are probably familiar with Spinning tops, including the common , hand r othe the on e, year s. The gyroscop have been around for hundreds of nn Joha ed nam tist scien an by a Germ was invented about 200 year s ago who was an astronomer, rger, enbe Bohn von rich Fried lieb Gott In ly called his invention a “Machine.” simp He mathematician, and physicist. ’s rger enbe Bohn ault developed 1852, the French physicist Léon Fouc gyrocompass. This was used to a d calle e devic new a into ” “Machine sailing ships. of determine the location and cour se es from the Greek com e scop Incidentally, the name gyro . look to = os skop and , words: gyros = circle
GYROSCOPES TODAY
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These days, many devices use technology that relies on the same gyroscopic effect that the gyrobot relies on to keep its balance. For example, did you know that gyroscopes are also built into smartphones? A gyroscope is used when the screen of a smartphone changes orientation when turned on its side. When you play a game on a smartphone in which you control a character by tilting or rotating the smartphone, you use the gyroscope: The current position of the smartphone is determined by the gyroscope, which maintains its orientation even when the smartphone is tilted. Of course, the gyroscopes built into smartphones are much smaller than the gyroscope in the gyrobot. The gyroscope is assembled with many other sensors and measuring instruments on the circuit board (the brain, so to speak) of a smartphone.
Since gy rosc opes al ways remain in their spatial or ientation, ev en if the spatial or ientation of th eir suspension ch anges, gy rosc opes are used in ai rcrafts. In ev er y airplane cock pit there is a gy roscope th at is part of a device called an ar tif icial horizon : This device show s the pilots a horizontal lin e that remain s the same, even if the aircraf t is tilting to make a turn , for example. The gy roscope m aintains its or iginal horizontal po sition even in an airplane fly in g at an angle. This enables pilots to see exac tly how their aircraf t is positioned in the air, relative to the ground. Pi lots need this info rmation when steering the aircraf t if they are unable to orien t themselves with the surfa ce of the Earth — for example, due to dark ne ss or clouds.
