Plain English Meaning

When you push on something that is spinning fast, it does not react where you pushed. The reaction shows up a quarter-turn later, in the direction the spin is going.

Full Definition

A property of a spinning rotor (such as a propeller or gyroscope) in which a force applied to the rotor produces a reaction not at the point where the force was applied, but at a point 90 degrees ahead in the direction of rotation.

Context Anchor

Seen when studying propeller effects, aircraft control during nose-up or nose-down changes, and the behavior of gyro-based flight instruments.

Derivation

Gyroscopic comes from the Greek gyros (, ) and skopein (to look at) -- literally a device for observing . comes from the Latin praecedere, meaning to go before or move forward. Together the term describes how the of a force on a spinning object 'goes ahead' of where it was applied.