Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Gyroscopic Propulsion
Using wheels in other ways
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You have a vehicle on rails, such as a train.

On board is a large gyroscope spinning. As you move the axis of the gyroscope, it produces a force in another direction.

Could this force be used to drive the train? If so what about marine uses too?


spider, Aug 08 2006

Eric Laithwaite's patent http://www.rexresea...aithwat/laithw1.htm
[angel, Aug 08 2006]

[Ling]'s prior half-baked art Enhanced_20gyroscop...20force_20generator
[angel, Aug 08 2006]



Annotation:







       //Could this force be used to drive the train?// No, it couldn't, unless you had a big engine equal to or greater in power to a train engine to power the gyroscope.

hippo, Aug 08 2006
  

       I think what spider is asking, is can you turn rotary motion into overall linear motion. You certainly can't do this in space, but on the ground it's a different matter. If you try to twist the gyroscope, it will produce a back-torque, and you could use that to turn the wheels in contact with the rails, and away you go. (Sounds like a high school physics question rather than an invention.)

ldischler, Aug 08 2006
  

       Embed a hand gyroscope in a minicel foam wing.

JesusHChrist, Aug 08 2006
  

       Or simply hire illegal immigrants to spin the gyroscope.

neuro, Aug 08 2006
  

       I don't think he's planning to use a mechanical hookup, which would be hard to do. He's assuming the old magical gyroscope power, that the build-yer-own-UFO guys keep dredging up, to get reactionless motion. Which is impossible to do.

baconbrain, Aug 08 2006
  

       Laithwaite has only been talking about his anti-gravity device since 1974, a bad sign. And his company, to which his patent from seven years ago was issued, gets only 4 hits on Google. Another bad sign.

ldischler, Aug 08 2006
  


 
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