Rotation of the swing plane of Foucault's pendulum and Thomas spin precession: two sides of one coin

2008/05/31 by M. I. Krivoruchenko · 18 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Circular orbit #Classical mechanics #Geometry #History and Theory of Mathematics #Mathematics #Mathematics and Applications #Orbit (dynamics) #Pendulum #Physics #Plane (geometry) #Precession #Quantum mechanics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Rotation (mathematics) #Spin (aerodynamics) #Swing #astro-ph #gr-qc #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.3367/ufne.0179.200908e.0873

published in Physics-Uspekhi 52(8), 821-829 (Institute of Physics) · 10 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX

openalex publication_date 2009/08/31 · arxiv created 2010/04/19 · arxiv updated 2010/04/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Using elementary geometric tools, we apply essentially the same methods to derive expressions for the rotation angle of the swing plane of Foucault's pendulum and the rotation angle of the spin of a relativistic particle moving in a circular orbit (Thomas precession effect).

Citations

• The Motion of the Spinning Electron
• On Unitary Representations of the Inhomogeneous Lorentz Group
• Relativistic velocity space, Wigner rotation, and Thomas precession

Cited by

• Thomas precession [wikipedia]

Related

• Thomas precession, relativistic torque, and non-planar orbits
• An Alternative Treatment of the Foucault Pendulum
• Thomas precession angle and spinor algebra
• Foucault precession manifested in a simple system
• Explicit exact expression for the Thomas precession