DD.3.3 Deep Dive - Gyroscopes - Nutation and Total Angular Momentum
Now, we've been discussing steady uniform precession, which is the simplest possible case of a phenomenon that can be much more complicated. As an example and the case we've been discussing so far where we release a gyroscope from rest when it's horizontal, very careful measurements would show that the initial motion isn't just steady precession but has some additional motion superimposed on it. The spin axis sort of bounces or nods up and down as it precesses. However, friction at the pivot point causes the amplitude of the nodding to rapidly decay until it settles into steady precession. This nodding motion is called nutation. In our example, it decays so quickly that we don't even notice it. But if you had a perfectly frictionless pivot point, it would be a more noticeable effect. And it would persist for much longer. Now, there's an interesting point about our horizontal gyroscope that I'd like to point out. So here is my rod of length d. T...