ORIGINAL: JackD
Well, if I remember my physics correctly (over 20 years ago...) If angular velocity (and therefore acceleration) wasn't the same at every point of the airplane, the plane would break, right?. Imagine your canopy at 1 rpm and your nose at 2 rpm... not possible right?. And if you started from 0 rpm and increased it to 10 rpms in 10 seconds, the angular velocity would be the same accross the whole airframe at any given time during those 10 seconds, which means that angular acceleration was the same accross all the airframe (2pi radians/sec*sec), thus, the gyro would read the same acceleration no matter where you put it. Therefore, distance from center is irrelevant, is not a variable in the angular position, velocity and acceleration equations. Does this make any sense????
Jack G
This whole gyro issue is like a brain teaser to me and I wish there was a diagram or simpler explanation of some sort. Jack G's explanation using the roll axis seemed to make sense until I considered a gyro placed out on the wingtip. Wouldn't it have a greater "angular acceleration" than one on the centerline? I darn sure know it will have more "g's" on it. I think I'm confusing terms here but just can't get it clear in my mind.
Anybody out there who can make this issue understandable to us non-physics major types?
Craig