gyroscope

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An apparatus composed of a wheel which spins inside of a frame (gimbal) and causes the balancing of the frame in any direction or position. In the form of a gyroscopic stabilizer, used to help keep aircraft and ships steady.

   Working with NR, ScotRail and Porterbrook, Perpetuum has fitted sensors with gyroscopes and accelerometers to trains that are already in passenger service.

2. 2
   noun

   rotating mechanism in the form of a universally mounted spinning wheel that offers resistance to turns in any direction

Borrowed from French gyroscope, coined in 1852 by physicist Leon Foucault, equivalent to gyro- + -scope, from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle”) and σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”).

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