If you lift up or lower the rotating flywheel, you too starting turning round on the platform. Why is that?
The flywheel is a gyroscope: an object that turns rapidly around its axis, like a spinning top. It tends to keep turning at the same speed and in the same direction. We call this “the law of the conservation of angular momentum”.
If you lift up or lower the flywheel, it opposes this change. It pushes back, so you turn round.
Gyroscope in smartphones
There is a gyroscope in your smartphone, too. It can turn in every direction. It operates as a very precise motion sensor. Handy if you want to play games! Are you racing and you turn your mobile slightly to steer? Then your car in the game turns as well.