Precession (mechanical)

So you know how when you spin a top it goes round and round? Well, sometimes when things spin, they don't just spin straight up and down. They can wobble around a little bit while they spin. We call that wobbling precession.

Let's imagine you're riding a bicycle and you want to turn left. You turn the front wheel to the left and the bike starts turning left. But if you keep turning the front wheel left and let go of the handlebars, the bike won't just keep turning left forever. Instead, it will start to wobble left and right while it keeps moving forward. That's what precession looks like.

Another example of precession is a spinning top. When you spin a top, it doesn't just stay perfectly upright. It wobbles a little bit as it spins. That wobbling is precession.

So basically, precession is when something that's spinning starts to wobble around a little bit while it spins. It happens in all sorts of things, from bicycles to spinning tops to gyroscopes in airplanes. It's a really neat thing to see!