The phenomenon considered is the transitory motion which takes place immediately following the removal of a support from the spinning rotor of a gyroscope. There, the damped nutation which is observed quickly gives way to a steady-state precession. A model involving Coulomb friction is put forward to fully explain the character of the gyroscopic motions and to properly account for the loss in energy of the system.
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References
1.
HirschhornJ. (1976), ‘Nutation and the build-up of precession’, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 4(3), 265–272.
