No, this is not how torque (as opposed to force) works. The only things that depend on location of a gyroscope are moment of inertia (vanilla SE already simulates it realistically) and mechanical stresses, which SE doesn't deal with.

i havent expended my phisx knowledge to far into the rotational forces that affect gyros to much... but soemthing basic tell me:

in an SE relatable example... if you have a cokcpit and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of heavy armore on one end of a light stick so the centre of mass is there.... and on the other end of said stick you have a gyro... the ship should rotate around the gyro.. OR ATLEAST rotate halfway between the centre of rotation (all the cumalitive gyros) and the centre of mass

it rotating ALWAYS around the centre of mas like SE currently does just doesnt seem right?

Oprindeligt skrevet af SoulTechnology:

in an SE relatable example... if you have a cokcpit and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of heavy armore on one end of a light stick so the centre of mass is there.... and on the other end of said stick you have a gyro... the ship should rotate around the gyro.. OR ATLEAST rotate halfway between the centre of rotation (all the cumalitive gyros) and the centre of mass

Incorrect. A body that is not constrained by hinges, etc. will always rotate around its centre of mass. Why, you might ask? Because spinning around CoM requires the least amount of energy (and when angular velocity is constant, it needs no energy input at all).

Oprindeligt skrevet af SoulTechnology:

it rotating ALWAYS around the centre of mas like SE currently does just doesnt seem right?

It is realistic. See my comment above.

k.... done a bit of light reading and 3d modled it in my head and that actually makes sence now. thanks.

Not entirely...
A body rotates around its centre of mass only if you assume the rotational forces applied to it are balanced around that came centre of mass. In the example above the forces come from the far side of the ship. In this example the gyro should behave like an anchor point that slowly pulls the heavy armour around it.

A gyroscope exerts torque only. It doesn't produce any force. The net linear force acting on the body in the above example is zero. Therefore, its CoM remains stationary, and body spins around it, not around the gyroscope.

so.... would this mean that a gyroscope is less effective if its furhter away form the centre of mass?

Both no and yes. No -- because rotation is directly proportional to combined gyro torque, which is constant. Yes -- because rotation is also inversely proportional to ship's moment of inertia; since gyroscopes are extremely massive, their placement will influence the latter significantly.

i'd like for gyros to stabilize offset forces, so that thrust dampening isn't -as- confused. fly easier with the stopping power of gyros that already exist in vanilla SE, while still disabling you from thrusting right (upward) and rolling left. it's visible with the default respawn ship especially.

Knsgf is mostly correct... an object always rotates around its center of mass in the real world, unless something prevents that, acting like a fulcrum. That said, in space, a gyro would actually be wasting its energy to not be near the center of mass. So that's what Knsgf gets wrong; SE does not realistically handle gyros, because in the real world t hey would be most efficient at the center of mass...

Reaction rings are another matter. As long as reaction rings are placed so that their rotational axis is of rotation passes through to the center of mass as closely as possible, they'd be perfectly efficient, mechanical stresses not withstanding.

To that effect, I'm actually somewhat surprised there's no reaction ring mods.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kallisti:

That said, in space, a gyro would actually be wasting its energy to not be near the center of mass. So that's what Knsgf gets wrong; SE does not realistically handle gyros, because in the real world t hey would be most efficient at the center of mass...

Angular acceleration of a rigid body is directly proportional to torque and inversely proportional to moment of inertia. The torque of a reaction wheel depends on how fast flywheel is accelerating, while torque of a gyro depends on how fast flywheel is tilting; in both cases exact location of wheel/gyro is irrelevant as far as torque is concerned. The only unrealistic thing about SE gyroscopes is that they never saturate, unlike real ones.

*Disclaimer* I am in no way an expert so I may be wrong about certain things so do not take my word as gospel
Gyroscopes to my knowledge aren't used as the way to rotate things instead gyroscopes are used to measure how much rotation has been done as gyroscopes' main functionality, staying in the same orientation due to angular momentum regardless of directional forces applied instead only rotational forces will change the orientation, and because of this they can be used to measure how much a craft has rotated, and due to the fact that gyroscopes, by design, are a closed system meaning that a gyroscope does not apply any rotational forces themselves. However, from what I remember the game does not simulate this. It is a game after all.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Just Box:

Gyroscopes to my knowledge aren't used as the way to rotate things instead gyroscopes are used to measure how much rotation has been done as gyroscopes' main functionality...

Control moment gyroscopes are used to actually rotate real spacecraft. ISS, for example, has four of them[ntrs.nasa.gov].