INTUITIVE EXPLANATION OF PRECESSION PHENOMENON
Zhisong XIONG, Yunhua CHENG · Wuli yu gongcheng. · 2023
Precession is an important part of the rigid body mechanics. However, due to the complexity of fixed-point rotation problems, the involved mathematical derivations are relatively complicated, hence the relevant contents of most textbooks are obscure and difficult to understand. On the other hand, the precession phenomenon has the characteristics of anti-intuition. All of these make it difficult for many people to truly understand the laws of the precession phenomenon. This paper starts with the inertia of any object, and intuitively explains precession by analogy with simple mechanics problems of a mass point. Then, we discuss the essence of the moment of gyration in depth, and with the help of simple force analysis and calculation, we get the result of precession easily. Our method avoids the complex theoretical calculation of rigid body mechanics and provides a new way to understand precession.