0. B. WARRING. 113 



further explanation. Should I add one more to the list 

 of failures I shall at least have the satisfaction of finding 

 myself in a company, goodly as to numbers, of whom 

 some occupy high positions in the world of science. 



THE RATIONALE OF THE GYROSCOPE. 



No new principle or occult force is concerned in any 

 of the phenomena presented by the gyrating bodies. 



A few familiar laws will enable us to explain every- 

 thing : 



1. A body moving in any direction will continue to 

 move in that direction notwithstanding other forces act 

 upon it which tend to send it in other directions. 



2. Motion is not accelerated or retarded by forces per- 

 pendicular to it. 



3. Action and re-action are equal. 



If, for example, a body moving north ten feet in a 

 second, is acted upon by another force, sufficient to send 

 it east eight feet in a second, it will continue to go north 

 ten feet in a second, and, at the same time, it will go 

 east eight feet in a second, acting in reference to each 

 force as if the other did not exist. 



It makes no difference how short the time in which 

 the force acts. If it produces a certain velocity, that ve- 

 locity remains unchanged in amount and direction till 

 the body meets a force not at right angles to its direction. 



The second law may be illustrated by the case of two 

 balls on opposite ends of a rod supported on a friction- 

 less point, in a vacuum. If, in some way, they are made 

 to revolve, they will persist in circling around the point 

 forever. Every instant they are acted upon by a force 

 (the centripetal) at right angles to their direction, and yet 

 they are neither accelerated nor retarded by it. 



The first question that arises when the gyroscope is in 

 operation is, why does it not fall at once, as other bodies 

 do ? This solved, we can solve the rest. 



97 



