Monday, April 19, 2010

Never stop questioning


The important thing is not to stop questioning.

-Albert Einstein


I have questions...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ask away. I have the answers.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous

I was just wondering what the angle of precession of a gyroscope, rotating at its optimal speed, in a vacuum, would be?

Navyman834

Anonymous said...

Put a rotor system in a vacuum and it will probably display gyro behaviour and precess in reponse to a torque input in spite of the low mass and speed of rotation.
Since rotors fly in air and are subject to the far more powerful aerodynamic forces of lift and drag, it is these that determine the response of the rotors and not precession.
Gyros can't flap to equality but a rotor system can which gives us all the problems of inflow roll, flapback, retreating blade stall etc to overcome (all aerodynamic in origin).
If the rotor simply precessed then factors like Lock number (blade inertia and aerodynamic damping factor) and phase lag changing with hinge offset and altitude would not be around to complicate the designers ordered lives.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous

Sounds rather involved but that is not the answer to the question. Next question: What are the factors used to determine the power of a digital computer?

Navyman834