Our clients often ask us how we chose the name Gyroscope. Maeryta Medrano, President and Founder of Gyroscope explains: "My father, a native of Colombia, South America, nicknamed me 'Spinning Top' in Spanish when I was a little girl. It probably meant something like Whirling Dervish, or someone who didn't sit still. When it came time to choose a name for the company, I liked the association with memories of my father, as well as the universal appeal of gyroscopes and spinning tops. It really seemed to fit our science center and children's museum clientele."

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Throughout history, people around the world have created, collected and played with spinning tops and gyrsocopes. "We have our own collection here in the office," says Chuck Howarth, Vice President Emeritus. "I can remember being fascinated by a high-tech gyro that someone showed me when I was President of Liberty Science Center. The thing just sat there spinning and humming for hours on my desk."

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The word "gyroscope" was first used by French scientist Leon Foucault in 1852. A combination of two Greek words, "gyros" means turn or revolution, and "skopein" to view. The literal translation of the two words is "to view the turning."

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A gyroscope's acrobatic spinning depends entirely upon Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion, specifically the principles of inertia and precession. These same principles govern all spinning bodies, from the tiniest electron to the Earth itself. 

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Gyroscopes and spinning tops are surprising and deceptively simple deomonstartions of fundamental physical principles. It's a great analogy for what Gyroscope strives for in our work.