How a gyroscope guides a rocket

I used to work at a place that made gyros , part of the calibration procedure was to let them run for a week . This was called caging the gyro . You could watch several gyros spinning when I arrived at work the gyros would be flat perfectly . When I left work they all were about180 degrees pointing straight up . The gyros had NOT moved it was the earth that moved . Blew me away when I saw it happen .

I liked this instructional video. My Father while in the Army designed and tested missiles at White Sands base. My sister has all of his written calculations/descriptions/designs. I like watching him putz with a small bicycle tire having welded rods on the center of the spoke array so he can hold onto it when he got the electric grinder/tool sharpener going at around 3400 rpm and placed the tire to it and got the tire spinning so fast he could hardly handle the dynamics of the spinning wheel in his hands. I watched him make his observations as he tried/forced to tilt the wheel in any direction. he was my teacher and inspiration for inventing.  For a winter project we built a gyro copter,aluminum frame and a wooden 3 ply rotor/no motor required. springtime came along and he took it out of the barn and with a strong nylon rope attached it to the copter and the other end tied it to a stake in the ground. being 8 years old at the time, I sat in the chair of the copter..the wind started to pick up and the rotor(not knowing of the rotor brake)began to rotate faster and faster. I did not want to jump off it fearing the blade would kill me..so I went airborne and the first to fly it(sort of). I screamed for dad and he ran out of the house. being about 15 ft in the air he could only give me instructions. I got hold of the steering column, he said push forward slowly ..I did and landed perfectly,he jumped on and knew how to brake the rotors speed. Man what a ride,.he smiled at me and said " I really wanted to be the first and only person to fly it,.but now you have that honor" he was not mad,.but all the more determined to test fly it for himself.  Obviously my weight was less and why i went airborne. A week later he and a few friends took it to a large prairie. they attached a long tow rope from copter to truck, dad put on a cheap helmet and harnessed himself in the seat and gave the order to go. the truck traveled about a quarter mile and dad released the guide rope..straight up he went,.then down,.then sideways,.then stabilized his flight. airborne for the better of twenty minutes flying around i could see a grin so big on his face looking though my boy scout binoculars.  he eyed a long empty stretch of country road and began his decent and made a perfect landing.  When it was all over his friends nicknamed him Gyro Jack. and ya know..he never flew anything else before and the only knowledge of flying the copter came from reading over and over the flying instructions and what to expect and how to counter any problems. he was a cool dad, I am proud of him . Sorry I just had to tell a story here. hope you had fun reading it. 

That footage of the rocket stuck in mid air is wonderful!

Explained in less than 20 minutes what some courses do in a week. Bravo!

Loved how you built a primitive model and attached simple paper pieces. It showed the principle very well. Too often people show the complicated model right away, making it hard to grasp the fundamentals.

I was a Pershing Missile officer in the late 1960s. The Pershing guidance system was basically the same as you explained. Your video brought back a lot of memories. Thank you.

I'm 59 and have exposed myself (sorry about that) to science all my life. I’ve seen most all the gyro videos on YouTube. This is the first time I've seen a demonstration of the concept of active control using the broom, that I recall. Perhaps it was the way you succinctly made the the mechanics crystal clear. Absolutely nailed it.

This video was extremely well done. Robert has a real flair for explaining and goes into just the right amount of detail to be interesting. It is not easy to communicate this clearly and keep the viewer engaged. Bravo.

Something I have wondered about for years thank you so much for this video.

Wow, I just stumbled on this amazing video and learned the rocket science in 20 minutes. Knew all the physics of Gyroscope but to put it altogether in such a simple way is just amazing!!!

This is an incredible demonstrations and explanation ! I always wondered how the rocket angle control was made. Thank you very much for that!

Fantastic! Wonderful work! Thank you so much for putting this together.

i really appreciate people like you taking the time and effort to teach people like me in a simple understandable fashion.

Very well explained. I always wondered how gyros worked but this demo clarifies the concept well.thanks.

Excelent! I was trying to explain to my 12 year old son how a gyro works and this video explains it perfectly! Thank you!

The best explanation of the practical use of a gyroscope on the internet! Great work! 😀

Great practical explanations

Excellent explanation, thank you for sharing.

Very nice, straightforward demonstration. Love it!

Such a wonderful simplistic demonstration, your point was perfectly clear. Kudos!