So you might be asking yourself, how does light bouncing around a set of mirrors duplicate a spinning gyroscope? Here's how I think of it. To overcome this, the dither motor applies a very small oscillatory rotation (about 1 arc-minute peak, at about 400Hz) to the entire block. This coupling of energy between two very high-Q oscillators can cause the frequencies to lock together. The mirrors are not perfect and produce miniscule amounts of backscatter, which couples energy between the two beams.
There are two types of mountings used in flight instruments - the universal mounting which allow the spin axis to turn and tilt, and the restricted mounting which allows the spin axis only to tilt.The power required to drive the rotor and spin it rapidly is provided by either a suction or electrical system.These two factors largely determine the quality of the gyroscope. The rotor must meet two basic design characteristics: great weight or density for its size and high spin rate. There are three major components: the spinning mass or rotor, the spin axis, and gimbals which are used to mount the spin axis. A gyroscope is a cylindrical mass which is mounted to spin rapidly about an axis.The following requirements are for mechanical gyroscopes and do not apply to laser ring gyroscopes. Figure: Mountings of the gyroscope, from AFM 51-37, 1966, figure 4-2.