2
votes
2answers
412 views

What causes precession or nutation in a spinning object?

What causes precession in a spinning object? What causes nutation in a spinning object? What causes a top, gyroscope, and the earth to wobble? Just because it's a simple question, I'm not ...
2
votes
1answer
136 views

Will a precessing spinning whell fall down if there is no friction at all?

If there where no friction at all, would a spinning wheel held up by one end of the axis spin precess forever without falling down? I just asked another question about the same problem: Direction ...
1
vote
3answers
791 views

Direction of torque precession of a spinning wheel

Consider a spinning wheel, which is held up by one end of it's axis like this: To explain why the change of angular momentum is directed as shown in the figure above, one usually says that there is ...
15
votes
8answers
4k views

Why don't spinning tops fall over?

One topic which was covered in university, but which I never understood, is how a spinning top "magically" resists the force of gravity. The conservation of energy explanations make sense, but I don't ...