You can click on the image to download it in gif format.
Further information on the Theory, Apparatus, Procedure, and Helpful Hints is available. Equipment is stored in Rockerfeller Rooms 402 & 403.
The purpose is to demonstrate that angular momentum is something that one rigid body can carry and transfer to another.
Angular momentum in any system (the direction of the vector given by the right-hand rule) is conserved. If the system tries to change the angular momentum of one of its parts, the change in momentum is acquired by the system itself.
The equipment needed for this demo is:
A student volunteer stands on a turntable and is handed a spinning bicycle tire. The arrangement constitutes a system which is free to rotate about its z-axis. When the student changes the angle that the axis of the wheel makes with the axis of the turntable's rotation, the component of angular momentum involved in the change will be acquired by the student. It's most effective to start with the axes aligned and to have the student first turn it slowly sideways and then keep turning it upside-down.
![[Toolbar]](/pix/ribbon.gif){kind=small}