Reaction Wheel

[RayDunzl]

I knew they were used in satellites to maintain or change orientation, but couldn't visualize how they might work.

 

[pozz]

 

[Wombat]

Reminds me of Professor Julius Sumner Miller appearing on Australian television, beginning in the early 1960s, with his WHY IS IT SO? show.

 

[Neddy]

So...wonder what it'd be like to add those reaction wheels to a bicycle.....

 

[Blumlein 88]

So...wonder what it'd be like to add those reaction wheels to a bicycle.....

Well there have been experimental bikes where they added extra wheels spinning in the opposite direction to eliminate the gyroscopic effect on a bicycle.

http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hemh1/gyrobike.htm

part way down the page on this 2nd link. extra counter-rotating wheels for both front and rear.

http://www.rainbowtrainers.com/category/bicycle-science/

http://www.phys.lsu.edu/faculty/gonzalez/Teaching/Phys7221/vol59no9p51_56.pdf

 

[Neddy]

Fascinating - and apparently found they were not at all un-rideable (sounds like he won a bet on that, even).
Always wondered about that.
Thanks!