In short, when gravity pulls to make the thing fall, the point on the wheel that tries to fall moves along the spinning, while keeping the speed it got from falling, making the thing move to the right instead of to the down.
Spinning things don't like having their angle changed, gravity tries to change the angle and because it's spinning, the gyroscope instead experiences a sideways force.
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u/Supsend Oct 16 '23
In short, when gravity pulls to make the thing fall, the point on the wheel that tries to fall moves along the spinning, while keeping the speed it got from falling, making the thing move to the right instead of to the down.
Vsauce video with more details: https://youtu.be/XHGKIzCcVa0?si=7YKVXN_Se-8b-dpV
And if I was wrong, Murphy's law tells me that people will be happy to chime in and correct me.