Precession of a Rotating Wheel

[Terrell8763]

Homework Statement

Hi. I have: A 3 kg bicycle wheel rotating at a 2484 rev/min angular velocity has its shaft supported on one side. When viewing from the left (from the positive x-axes), one sees that the wheel is rotating in a clockwise manner. The distance from the center of the wheel to the pivot point is 0.6 m. The wheel is a hoop of radius 0.4 m and its shaft is horizontal.

I've attached a picture of the situation.

Assume all the mass of the system is located at the rim of the bicycle wheel. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s^2.

The direction of precession as viewed from the
top is
1. opposite to the direction of rotation of the
wheel.
2. along the direction of rotation of the
wheel.
3. clockwise.
4. counter-clockwise.
5. static, since angular momentum is conserved.

Homework Equations

Right hand rule

The Attempt at a Solution

I thought it would go along the direction of rotation of the
wheel, but evidently not.

 

[Spinnor]

See section 4, page 4,

http://physnet2.pa.msu.edu/home/modules/pdf_modules/m77.pdf

All you need to do is properly apply, Torque = dL/dt to come up with the right answer.

Good luck