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NOTE: This video will appear in a playlist on Smarter Every Day hence the references to Veritasium. Destin does lots of cool science stuff – check out his channel.

There several types of engines that give lift and power the aerial platforms that can house a camera, two of them use propellers.  i though it would be interesting to learn a bit about the laws of physics behind the mechanics.  Here are some common terms used to describe the action of the physics.

Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. It can be defined as a change in direction of the rotation axis in which the second Euler angle (nutation) is constant. In physics, there are two types of precession: torque-free and torque-induced. -wikipedia.

Torque-free precession occurs when the axis of rotation differs slightly from an axis about which the object can rotate stably: a maximum or minimum principal axis.

Torque-induced precession (gyroscopic precession) is the phenomenon in which the axis of a spinning object (e.g., a part of a gyroscope) “wobbles” when a torque is applied to it, which causes a distribution of force around the acted axis.