Gyroscope
The gyroscope: a remarkable device used to guide everything from submarines to satellites. Theyβre also integral to drones, a technology some believe will transform how we shop.
When the HMS Victory sank in 1744, with it went an inventor named John Serson and a device heβd dreamed up. He called it the βwhirling speculumβ, but we now know the basic idea as a gyroscope. Serson thought it could help sailors to navigate when they couldnβt see the horizon. Nowadays gyroscopes are tiny and, as Tim Harford describes, they are used to guide everything from submarines to satellites, from rovers on Mars to the phone in your pocket. They are also integral to drones β a technology that some believe could transform how we do our shopping. But for that, theyβll need to work in all weathers.
Image: A gyroscope (Credit: Getty Images)
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- Sat 13 Apr 2019 04:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Australasia, East and Southern Africa, East Asia & South Asia
- Sat 13 Apr 2019 13:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service News Internet
- Sun 14 Apr 2019 14:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
- Sun 14 Apr 2019 21:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sun 14 Apr 2019 22:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 15 Apr 2019 03:50GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service South Asia
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