Data Sheet

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
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