Gyroscope
Giróscopo
- Date
- 1852 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Léon Foucault (named and applied the instrument; the gimbal-mounted spinning wheel had already been described by Johann Bohnenberger in 1817)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A year after his pendulum, Foucault mounted a spinning mass in a gimbal and named it the 'gyroscope' (from the Greek for 'see' and 'turn') because, by conserving its axis of rotation, it let observers see the Earth's rotation directly without a long pendulum.
The mechanism itself (a gimbal-mounted wheel) already existed; Foucault's contribution was the name, the physical interpretation and its demonstrative use.
What it led to
- Gyrocompasses and inertial navigation systems
- Gyroscopic stabilizers in ships, aircraft and spacecraft
- The gyroscope as a teaching tool for mechanics