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Old April 13, 2010, 06:19 PM   #14
mykeal
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Join Date: October 8, 2006
Location: Northern Michigan
Posts: 2,772
The flight of a perfect sphere is stabilized by rotating about an axis aligned with the direction of flight the same way a gyroscope is stabilized in the plane containing the axis of rotation. Gyroscopic stabilization occurs as a result of the angular momentum of the projectile, regardless of it's aerodynamic properties. The amount of stabilization does vary with the inertia of the projectile about the axis of rotation since that inertia affects the angular momentum, but it is present whenever there is rotation, even in a perfect sphere.
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