How does the GyroTwister work?
Imagine
you´re holding a glass of ice cubes in your palm
and you shake the ice around the inside wall of
your glass.
The GyroTwister works without batteries! You
power it up using pure muscle power. Inside the
device, you´ll find a 200 gram rotor - the heart
of the GyroTwister. Once it´s set into motion, a
rotation impulse starts up around the axis. Bike
riders are familiar with this kind of impulse. If
you get on a bike that´s not moving, you´ll fall
over. But the faster you ride, the more stabile
the bike becomes. To steer, more power has to be
used as speeds increase. The rotor within the
GyroTwister is able to build up stability In
exactly the same way – through the moment of
inertia (the gyrating mass is about 2 cm (1/2
inch) from the axis) and the rotation speed. The
user can now try to tilt the rotor, while
simultaneously turning the rotation axis, to
create a moment when the rotor beings turning.
The gyroscope reacts to this movement with an
opposite motion in an attempt to straighten
upright again. This power force is known as
"precession". The opposite reaction movement is
stronger than you might first think. The
principle of precession is probably familiar to
those who´ve tried to roll a bicycle or car tire
down the street. At first the tire rolls straight
and upright, then it turns to the left or right
and then straight again, only to beginning
turning all over again. In contrast to a tire
being rolled along the street, the rotor inside
the GyroTwister is guided in a circular motion.
The GyroTwister can´t stand completely upright -
instead, the precession is channeled by the
guiding movement. The only "way out" for the
rotor is to "roll away" from the guiding control,
which increases the rotor speed. In the meantime,
the user has tilted the body another quarter turn
and the rotor continues its precession. This
process continues on. The energy used by the user
is converted into increased rotations for the
rotor. This way it´s possible to speed up the
rotor to 10,000 rotations per minute. The rotor
is surrounded by gyrating movements which are 75
times higher than the actual weight of the rotor
- that is, up to 15 kg or 33 pounds more! When
the user no longer moves the rotor, the energy
stored in the rotations is used by the
friction.
