Explain why a spinning bicycle wheel doesn't easily tip over?

Question

Explain without using math formulas if possible.

Answer 1

When something's spinning fast, and you try to tip its axis to point in a different direction, it reacts in a way you wouldn't expect. In the case of a bicycle, when you lean a little to the left, you'd expect gravity to topple you, but instead of getting pulled down, you get pushed to the left and you execute a turn.

To picture why this happens, imagine a bicycle wheel (without the bike), hanging from a rope attached to its axis, and spinning (clockwise) on a horizontal plane (so its axis is pointing up & down).

Now let's say you have a little hammer, and you give a sharp bang downward on the north side of the rim. You'd kind of expect the north side to tip down, and the south side to tip up, right? But that's not what happens. To see why, imagine that the spot that you smacked has a little white spot on it. when you smack it, the white spot starts to descend, but it's also traveling toward the east (because of the spin). So the white spot follows a diagonal path downward to the east. The net result is that the _east_ side of the wheel tips down (and the west side tips up), even though it was the _north_ side that you pushed down on.

It still looks and feels weird when you see it--but the bottom line is that when you try to tilt a (spinning) axis in one direction, it responds by tilting at right angles to the way you thought you were tilting it. Take the same wheel on a rope, hold the wheel vertically (axis horizontally), and give the wheel a good spin--then release the wheel so that only one end of its axis is being supported (by the rope). You'd expect the wheel to fall down to a horizontal orientation; but the actual motion is perpendicular to that--the wheel stays more or less in a vertical plane, and just twists around the rope.

Answer 2

Well, sure it's the wind that spins the wheel, however the motorbike wheel isn't a pinwheel. A pinwheel has twisted blades for torque new release. What you're seeing with the motorbike wheel is a variety of wind shear. As the air flows excessive of the auto there's a boundary layer shaped. The air pace (relative to the auto roof) is low close the roof and quicker farther above the roof. So the wind pushes tougher at the best of the wheel than the backside. If I'm proper, you must be seeing the highest of the wheel relocating rearward and the backside relocating ahead (relative to the auto frame).

Answer 3

Because the force of the spinning wheel propelling it's self forward along with the grip of the rubber wheel on the road. It's got a grip on the road and is driven forward by equal force on each side so it doesn't wobble or tip over.

Answer 4

The wheel has a lot of energy going in the plane of rotation (the way of the rotation). For it to tip, its energy would have to stop being in that and convert to another direction instead. In essence, energy has to stop flowing in one direction (therefore it needs to be compensated) and energy be acquired in the other direction. Nature is lazy (inertia) so this conversion of energy will not occur freely. The consequence is that the wheel will have a tendency to remain in the plane where it is, due to gyroscopic inertia.

Answer 5

The idea of inertia (objects want to stay in a constant state of motion) and conservation of angular momentum are the best explanations.

Answer 6

Because an object in motion wants to stay in motion

Answer 7

It is called "Gyroscopic Inertia."

Same reason why a gyroscope doesn't flop over onto it's side.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope
.

Answer 8

inertia and momentum