Question

1. The three directions you can “turn” in a plane are also known in along the x,y, and z.

a) What is the three motions referred to when flying an aircraft?

b) How does that relate to the following pictures?

c) Why was gyroscopic navigation so important for ships?

d) Why was an Apollo space mission affected by Gimbal Lock?

2. a. Salt water is denser than fresh water. Which fish would need to have has a larger bladder? A saltwater or Freshwater bass?

b. What is fizzing a fish?

c. A shark is a cartilaginous fish that lacks an air bladder. If it can’t move, it will sink. Why?

d. How does the effect of water passing through a fishes gills affect his buoyancy?

e. Is the water moving past a gill and air passing over an airplane wing, the same or are they different? Why? Like all bony fish, a bass has a gas-filled sac or air bladder that allows it to float motionless below the surface of the water.

Answer 1

1)

(a) Roll, Pitch, and Yaw.

(b) The Gyroscopes inertial rotation controlled movement along the planes three axes of movement.

(c) The gyroscopic compass is unaffected by Earth's or the ship's magnetic field andalways points to true north.

(d) The set of gimbals were used on an IMU. Those on the ship knew of the problem but did not want to use a fourth gimbal. The system had given up and froze the platform instead of attempting to drive the gimbals as fast as possible. The spacecraft had to be manually moved away from the gimbal lock position and then the platform was manually realigned.