little1406
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Consider a gyro located at the North Pole with its axis of rotation horizontal and its bearings fixed w.r.t. the Earth. When the gyro is spun up, its own angular momentum resists being rotated once per day by the Earth so the Earth must exert forces on the bearing mounts which amount to a torque that forces the gyro axis to rotate in a horizontal plane once per day. The apparent problem with this is the effect upon the Earth's angular momentum. It appears that the gyro is causing the Earth's rotation to gradually slow down....yet no external forces are acting upon the Earth-gyro system....an apparent violation of Conservation of Angular Momentum. What am I missing here?