Crossword-Solution: PRECESS 7 letters, 4 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 11

The axis of an elongated shot would move parallel to itself only if fired in a vacuum; but in air the couple due to a sidelong motion tends to place the axis at right angles to the tangent of the trajectory, and acting on a rotating body causes the axis to precess about the tangent.

Flexing it--which would happen if they let the asteroid precess at will--would soon fatigue even that heavy bolt.

Much as a top, spinning off-center on its point, will swing slowly around that point instead of tipping over, the spinning protons in the magnetic field would precess, but would not tip and line up without the application of a rotating secondary magnetic field at radio frequencies which would make the feat of lining them up easy.

The Security men were attempting to instruct the computer to precess the wheel back to its original position.

You see that the orange-shaped one continues to spin and precess, and gets itself upright when disturbed, like an ordinary rigid top; indeed I have seldom seen a better behaved top; whereas the lemon-shaped one lies down on its side at once, and quickly ceases to move in any way.