Could a gyroscope fly by turning it on its side and pushing on the right of the disk...?

Question

Picture the holding of the bike wheel while standing on the rotating platform scenario..... If you tilt the top of the wheel, you will be forced to the left or right... If you tilted the wheel to the left or right, would you feel an upward force or downward?

If so, why could you not build a levitating device using this technique?

Answer 1

The answer is yes.
I would not build a flying craft based on this method however.

You will find an explanation in the reference provided

Have fun

Answer 2

Let me answer your second question first. It depends on the direction that the wheel is spinning, or it's "rotational sense." I won't get into the nitty gritty details. of rotational sense. I think what you are trying to describe is not strictly a force, but a "torque" or "twisting force" as you are attempting to tilt the gyroscope's axis of rotation. The gyroscope will respond by *rotating* in a direction perpendicular to both the torque and and the spin axis. The speed of this rotation or "precession" is proportional to both the applied torque and the speed of the gyroscope.

To answer your first question, according to Isaac Newton's famous third law, for every action there must be an equal and opposite re-action( this is a mantra of physicists). Therefore in order to apply a torque to the gyroscope, one must apply an equal and opposite torque to the ground. If you are not touching the ground you cant tilt the gyroscope.

Incidentally, helicopters do take advantage of the gyroscopic action of their rotors to stay stable in the air, but not to provide lift. They do that by blowing air downwards to counteract the force of gravity.