Quote:
Originally Posted by orionjim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCcfKBfmyP4
This movie is about 5 minutes long and the first 3 minutes are pretty boring but at about 3 minutes and 50 seconds in he starts to show how the gyroscope reacts when you apply pressure to the aft gimbal (the outer gimbal). Notice that applying very little pressure causes the spinning pole of the gyroscope to drop. Picture this as the sun and the pole of the sun drops from the top to where the equator was; the sunspots from earth’s view wouldn’t be visible. But even worse since the pole of the sun is facing the earth the sun’s main flow of heat and radiation will not be flowing towards the earth; it’s going to get colder. (Read about the Maunder Minimum).
This can’t happen to the sun can it? Well, the way I read your chart is: yes it can and does! And the thing to remember is Jupiter is only providing 60 percent of our solar systems angular momentum, throw in Saturn and it goes up to 85 percent.
Jim
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That motion that he induced with his finger did not simulate the torque which the planets exert on the presumably slightly oblate Sun. The way to simulate the latter would be to set the axis a few degrees off vertical and hang a small weight on the gymbal under the lower gyro bearing. That would attempt to move the axis tilt toward the vertical, and as a result the gyro would precess slowly and steadily in a conical pattern around the vertical coordinate.
The fact that Jupiter and Saturn have about 85% of the total angular momentum of the solar system, and the Sun's spin accounts for only about 2%, is beside the point. That tells us nothing about the magnitude and direction of the gravitational torque the planets exert on the Sun.
Please show us geometrically and dynamically, in a few simple steps, what it is you think I am missing.