The Concept of Rate, More Particularly, Angular Rate Pertaining to Rate Gyroscopes

This applications note discusses in brief, the concept of rate, in particular angular rate, as it pertains to gyroscopes and the measurement of angular velocity, or the rate-of-turn, along with how the data can be used. This applications note is primarily intended to familiarize the reader to the basic concepts relating to the rate gyroscope.

The word, rate, can refer to many different ideas. In engineering, rate refers to rate-of-change with respect to time. In mathematical language (operational calculus) rate is generally symbolized as: Dxdt which means the change in x with respect to the change in time t (the time during which the change in x occurred). 'x' can symbolize real quantities such as position (distance), pressure, angle, energy, or even a rate (as in acceleration). Typically in engineering, the above notation is taken to mean the instantaneous rate of change, or the time derivative. For example, the speedometer in a car indicates the instantaneous speed (rate of change of distance traveled) that the car is traveling at, at the instant during which one looks at the speedometer.