Thames & Kosmos Gyroscopes & Flywheels User manual

Artikelnummer
Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizerstr. 5-7, 70184 Stuttgart, Germany | [phone] | www.kosmos.de
Thames & Kosmos, 301 Friendship St., Providence, RI, 02903, USA | 1-800-587-2872 | www.thamesandkosmos.com
Thames & Kosmos UK Ltd, Goudhurst, Kent, TN17 2QZ, United Kingdom | 01580 212000 | www.thamesandkosmos.co.uk
EXPERIMENT MANUAL

665106-02-040117
BUILDING TIPSUSING THE GYROSCOPE
USING THE FLYWHEEL
ENGINE
ANCHOR PINS AND CONNECTORS
Take a careful look at the different assembly
components. Blue short anchor pins, purple joint pins,
red shaft plugs, and purple 30-mm tubes can look
pretty similar at first glance. When you assemble the
models, it’s important to use the right ones.
CONNECTING
FRAMES AND RODS
Use the anchor pins to connect
frames and rods.
ANCHOR PIN LEVER
When you want to take your model apart again, you
will need the anchor pin lever. Use the narrow end of
the lever to remove the anchor pins. You can use the
wide end to pry out shaft plugs.
There are eight possible insertion slots in the
rip-cord gyroscope for the rip cords. Use only
one at a time. Please note the markings on the
top and bottom of the gyroscope housing which
indicate the direction in which to insert the rip
cords. Do not insert the rip cord into a slot if the
gyroscope is still spinning.
The wheel with the rubber ring is the drive
wheel. This is the wheel that provides the final
driving force for the vehicle. This wheel is driven
by the flywheel inside the device.
There are six possible insertion slots in the
flywheel engine for the rip cords. Use only one
at a time. Do not insert the rip cord into a slot if
the flywheel is still spinning. Try the rip cord in
different slots to see which way the drive wheel
turns and which direction the vehicle moves for
each slot.

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
› › › TIPS AND TRICKS

No. Description Qty. Item No.
1Short anchor pin 19 7344-W10-C2B
2Joint pin 3 1156-W10-A1P1
3Cone pin 1 7128-W10-E2TB
4Sphere pin 1 7128-W10-E1TB
5Shaft plug 2 7026-W10-H1R
6Two-to-one converter 6 7061-W10-G1P
7 Tube, 30 mm 3 7400-W10-G1P
85-hole rod 4 7413-W10-K2D
9 Curved rod 4 7061-W10-V1D
10 90-degree converter - X 2 7061-W10-J1D
11 90-degree converter - Y 2 7061-W10-J2D
12 Small pulley 2 7344-W10-N3G
13 Head 1, front 1 7396-W10-G1TD
14 Head 2, neck 1 7396-W10-G2TD
15 Head 3, back 1 7396-W10-G3TD
16 Gyro cover plate 2 7395-W10-E2TD
No. Description Qty. Item No.
17 Rod-to-tube connector 1 7395-W10-E3TD
18 5-hole dual rod B 1 7026-W10-S2D
19 3-hole wide rounded
rod, black 5 7404-W10-C1D
20 3-hole wide rounded
rod, green 3 7404-W10-C1G2
21 3-hole cross rod 3 7026-W10-X1D
22 7-hole flat rounded rod 2 7404-W10-C3G2
23 7-hole wide rounded rod 2 7404-W10-C2G2
24 Anchor pin lever 1 7061-W10-B1Y
25 13x3 Frame 2 7406-W10-A1D
26 Arm flat rod 2 7395-W10-E1TD
27 45-degree curved track 4 7395-W10-F1
28 Sloped track 4 7395-W10-F2
29 Rip-cord gyroscope 1 7395-W85-A
30 Flywheel engine 1 7395-W85-B
31 Rip cord 2 7395-W10-D1D
What’s inside your experiment kit:
Checklist: Find – Inspect – Check off
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31
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
› › › KIT CONTENTS
GOOD TO KNOW! If you are missing any
parts, please contact Thames & Kosmos
customer service.
US: [e-mail]
UK: [e-mail]

› › › TABLE OF CONTENTS

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
Safety Information .......... Inside front
A Word to Parents ............ Inside front
Tips and Tricks ..................................... 
Kit Contents .......................................... 
Table of Contents ................................ 
The Gyroscopic Effect ......................... 
The amazing gyro ................................ 
Introduction to the gyroscope
Balancing top ....................................... 
The gyroscope as a spinning top
Gyroscopic forces ................................ 
More exploration of the gyroscope’s
effects
The spinning robot .............................. 
This robot spins around and around
Momentum........................................... 
Balancing robot ................................ 
Introduction to friction and inertia
Rip-cord gyrobot and track ............ 
Build a model that uses the
gyroscope and flywheel engine to
move along the track
Additional track designs ................ 
Breakdancer ...................................... 
Exploring angular momentum
Headspinning breakdancer .............
Conservation of angular momentum
Flywheels ............................................
Motorcycle ..........................................
Introduction to flywheels
Trike motorcycle ...............................
Another flywheel experiment
TIP!
You will find supplemental
information in the “Check It
Out” sections on pages , ,
, and .

The Gyroscopic Effect
A gyroscope is a spinning wheel
or disk that is mounted in such a
way that it can rotate freely and
assume any orientation on its
own. The wheel or disk is usually
mounted inside of two rings
which are free to rotate in all
three directions.
A gyroscope is like a spinning
top held inside a frame by its
axis. Gyroscopes were invented
as tools to help scientists
study Earth’s rotation. Today
gyroscopes are used in many
applications such as compasses,
flight instruments, and
stabilization devices.

How is a spinning top able to balance on one small point?
How does your smartphone know to change the orientation of
its screen when it is turned on its side? Both of these things
work because of gyroscopes and gyroscopic forces!
In the following experiments, you will investigate how a
gyroscope works and how gyroscopes are used in many
different ways.
Gyroscope parts
Frame
Gimbal
Rotor
Spin axis

The amazing gyro
YOU WILL NEED
HERE’S HOW
1to 7Assemble the gyroscope model.
8Place one of the rip cords through the rip
cord slot in the side of the gyroscope. Pull
the rip cord quickly and forcefully to start
the gyroscope’s rotor turning. Hold the
gyroscope in your hand and turn it upside
down.
9Turn the gyroscope from side-to-side,
both with and against the direction that
the rotor disk in the gyroscope is spinning.
Try balancing it on its corner.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Do you feel the force that makes it so difficult to tip the
gyroscope? What you’re experiencing is something called
the gyroscopic effect. It arises when an object (the rotor
disk, in this case) spins very rapidly. The force that you
feel when you tip the gyroscope is the gyroscope trying
to maintain the disk’s axis of rotation, the invisible line
about which the disk is rotating.
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456
7
Flip over
x
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3124
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10x 1x 2x 2x 2x
1x
1x
5x 3x 2x
1x

The Gyroscopic Effect
EXPERIMENT 1

2
HERE’S HOW
1to 4Assemble the model first with the
purple two-to-one converter piece on
the bottom.
5Place one of the rip cords on the table. Insert
the other rip cord into the gyroscope. Pull the
rip cord to start the gyroscope spinning.
6Place the gyroscope on the first rip cord. Then
lift the cord up in the air with two hands. Can
you get the model to balance on the rip cord?
7Replace the purple piece with the cone pin to
turn the gyroscope into a top!
1
23
4
7
Balancing top
YOU WILL NEED
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Gravity is a force of attraction between objects. The more massive an object, the
stronger its gravity. Earth’s gravity acts so strongly on us because it is so large
compared to us. Earth’s gravity pulls all objects near Earth toward its center of
gravity.
The spinning top stays balanced because of the gyroscopic principle, which says
that a spinning object tends to stay in its plane of rotation unless an external force
acts on it. The gyroscopic effect counters the force of gravity and keeps the top
from falling over.
Friction between the top and the tabletop as well as between the top and the
air eventually causes the top to slow down and fall over. That’s why a top
can’t stay spinning forever! How long can you get your top to spin?
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
EXPERIMENT 2

WHAT’S HAPPENING
A top spins so fast that as soon
as its weight becomes
unbalanced and it starts to
fall to one side, the imbalance
has spun around to the other
side. As long as it is spinning
fast enough, it’s like the top
is falling to all sides evenly
and therefore it stays
balanced.
HERE’S HOW
1to 6Assemble the model.
7First, without starting the
rotor inside the gyroscope
spinning, try to balance it
on the stand a few times.
8Insert one of the rip
cords into the slot in
the side of the gyroscope.
Pull the rip cord. Now try
to balance the gyroscope
while the rotor is spinning.
What do you observe?
Gyroscopic forces
YOU WILL NEED
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10x 1x 2x 1x
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1x
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Stand

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 3

A Brief History of Gyroscopes
Although tops have been around for hundreds of years,
the gyroscope is a more recent invention.
The first known instrument that was similar to a
gyroscope was made by John Serson in 1743. It was
used as a way to locate the horizon in foggy conditions
at sea.
The first gyroscope was made by Johann
Bohnenberger in 1817, who called his invention the
“machine.”
It was Léon Foucault who gave the gyroscope
its name. He used a gyroscope to demonstrate the
rotation of Earth, which is why gyroscope’s root
words are the Greek words skopeein for “to see” and gyros for “rotation.”
With the use of electric motors gyroscopes were able to spin almost indefinitely. This
allowed them to be used in important navigational instruments such as heading indicators
and gyro-compasses.
Precession
You saw in the previous experiments that the
gyroscopic effect keeps the spinning gyroscope
from falling over. However, the gyroscope
will react to external forces applied to it by
changing the direction of its axis of rotation.
This change in the orientation of the rotational
axis is called precession. Even as the rotor is
spinning around the axis of rotation, the axis
of rotation itself is rotating
around a second axis.
Electronic Gyroscopes
How does your phone know to change its
screen’s orientation when the phone is turned
on its side? How do cameras and video
game controllers detect shaking? They use
gyroscopes!
Gyroscopes are used in phones and other
electronic devices to detect movement in three
dimensions. The gyroscopes in smartphones are
much smaller than the gyroscope in this kit.
These microchip gyroscopes
are small enough to fit on the
phone’s printed circuit board
along with all the other sensors
and electronics. Microchip
gyroscopes are called MEMS
(micro electro mechanical
systems) gyroscopes.
Axis of
rotation
MEMS
gyroscope
Smartphone circuit board
Precession
CHECK IT OUT


The spinning robot
YOU WILL NEED
Determining location with
gyroscopes
Image a robot in a factory assembly line needs
to turn its arm to pick up a part, and to do
so, the robot needs to know exactly where in
space its arm is located. A gyroscopic sensor
helps the robot do this. The sensor works based
on the principle of how gyroscopes respond
to forces (pushes and pulls). This experiment
demonstrates how this works in principle.
1
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3
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CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Flip over
Flip over

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 4
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6x 2x 4x 4x
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6
7
8
WHAT’S HAPPENING
When the rotor disk rotates clockwise, the
body rotates clockwise. Then when the rotor
disk rotates counterclockwise, the body also
rotates counterclockwise. When the disk
spins, the model is experiencing what is
called a torque. Torque is a force that causes
something to rotate. When you turn a bolt
using a wrench, you are applying a torque.
This is why the model spins in the direction
that the disk is spinning.
So, how is the factory robot able to use a
gyroscope to find its arm’s position? It
does this by measuring the amount of
torque that a gyroscope inside the arm
experiences when it turns and using the
torque measurements to calculate the
distance and direction the arm moved.
HERE’S HOW
1to 8Assemble the model.
9Pull the rip cord so that the rotor disk
in the gyroscope turns clockwise. Does
the rest of the model rotate clockwise or
counterclockwise? Repeat this with the
wheel turning counterclockwise.
Flip over

EXPERIMENT 4

Momentum
Why does a figure skater spin faster
when they move their arm closer to
their body? How does the Earth
behave like a top?
In the following experiments you will
learn about another property of
gyroscopes and flywheels called
momentum.

Gyroscopes & Flywheels

Balancing robot
YOU WILL NEED
Forces of resistance
If you roll a ball on the ground and it does not
bump into anything, why does it stop rolling?
The reason the ball stops rolling is because of
friction. Friction is a force that resists motion by
converting that motion into heat. If you rub your
hands together you will feel them heat up due
to friction. If there was no friction and the ball
could roll forever, would it ever stop rolling?
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4x 1x
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HERE’S HOW
1to 4Assemble the model.
5Insert one rip cord into the slot
in the flywheel engine. Pull the
rip cord and place the model
down on a flat smooth surface.
See how far the model travels.
6Now insert rip cords into both the
gyroscope and flywheel engine. Pull
both rip cords at once (or start with the
gyroscope) and place the model down.
How does the distance it travels this
time compare to before?
WHAT’S HAPPENING
From your previous experiments you saw
that a gyroscope resists changes in its
axis of rotation. This resistance to change
is due to a property of all materials
called inertia. You feel the effects of
inertia when a car stops suddenly and
your body continues moving forward,
pressing into your seatbelt. Inertia was
formulated by Newton in his first law
of motion, often called the law of
inertia. It states that an object at rest
stays at rest, while an object in motion
stays in motion unless it is acted upon
by a force.
3 4

EXPERIMENT 5

1
2 3
5
4
Rip-cord gyrobot
and track
YOU WILL NEED
Objects in motion
If a large truck is traveling very fast it would
take a large force to bring it to a stop. Is that
due to the inertia of the truck? The inertia of
an object is only related to its mass. Since the
object is moving, this requires another important
concept from physics called momentum.
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HERE’S HOW
1to 5Assemble
the rip-cord
gyrobot model.
Test this model by spinning both
the gyroscope and flywheel
with the rip cords. Does it
balance and move forward?
Note: This model is intended to be used with
the track included in the kit. Instructions for
track assembly start on the next page.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 6
Rip-cord
gyrobot

Launch chute assembly
6to 12 Now assemble the launch
chute. This structure acts as
a chute to help you quickly
load the rip-cord gyrobot
onto the track, so it’s easier
to get the gyrobot perfectly
positioned and running
on the track before its
gyroscope rotor or flywheel
run down too much.
6
7 8
9

EXPERIMENT 7

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
12
11
10
Launch chute

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 7

13
14 15
16
“U-turn” track assembly
13 to 18 Now assemble the track. Follow the instructions here to build the “U-turn” track
design. There are nine other track configuration suggestions on pages 18–20.

EXPERIMENT 7

14
15
16
17
18
19 Inset rip cords into the
gyroscope (top) and flywheel
engine (bottom) components of
the rip-cord gyrobot model.
20 Hold the model by the
underside of the gyroscope.
Place the gyrobot on the
track in the launch chute,
making sure that the wheels
are centered on the ridge of
the track. Pull the rip cords
at the same time (or start
with the gyroscope rip cord)
and immediately release the
gyrobot. How is the gyrobot
able to move up an incline
without assistance?
WHAT’S HAPPENING
The gyroscope keeps the gyrobot from falling off
the track and the flywheel engine transfers power
to the wheels to move the model forward along
the track. You added energy to the system with
your pull of the rip cords. The energy is then used
to spin the gyroscope and flywheel, which keep
spinning due to their momentum. Momentum is a
measure of an object’s mass multiplied by its
velocity (which is its speed in a specific
direction). Momentum keeps the gyrobot model
moving along the track. Read more about
momentum on the next Check It Out page.

Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 7
“U-turn” track

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3
3
4
4
5

EXPERIMENT 8: ALTERNATE TRACK
“S-turn” track
“S-turn” track

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
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
Gyroscopes & Flywheels
EXPERIMENT 9: ALTERNATE TRACK
“Himalaya” track
“Himalaya” track