Question

In class we did a demonstration of a spinning tire being held up by a rope attached to an axel that extended about 20 cm out from the center of the tire. If we didn’t spin the tire and tried to hold it up by a rope attached to the end of the axel, it fell over as we would expect. If we spun the tire and then tried to hold it up by the rope it didn’t fall over. Using a force diagram and words like “torque” and “angular momentum” explain why the tire doesn’t fall over. You can see a video of this experiment at https://youtu.be/8H98BgRzpOM

Answer 1

A rotating bicycle wheel has angular momentum, which is a property involving the speed of rotation, the mass of the wheel, and how the mass is distributed. ... One way to change the angular momentum of the bicycle wheel is to change its direction. To do this, you must exert a twisting force, called a torque, on the wheel.