Toy gyroscopes can do all kinds of interesting tricks. The most mysterious one, precession, seems to defy gravity.
By definition, precession refers to a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. If you rotate a spinning gyroscope at its spin axis, the gyroscope would instead try to rotate around an axis at the right angles to the axis direction that your force is applied, making the gyroscope appears to be standing against gravitational pull.
The precession effect is also observed in astronomy. Scientists believe that over tens of thousands of years the combination of the precession of the equinoxes, changes in the tilt of Earth's axis to its orbit, and the Earth's eccentricity of its orbit may have lead to ice ages on Earth.
Source: Veritasium via Youtube
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