Intuitive understanding of Thomas precession

Thread starter yuiop
Start date Jan 20, 2014
Tags

Precession

In summary, there are various explanations for the Thomas precession in the literature, including the kinematic effect of non-commutativity of Lorentz boosts, the interpretation of precession as a result of centrifugal force, and the idea that it is a combination of gyroscopic precession and Lense-Thirring precession. Mathpages provides a thorough explanation of the Thomas precession, while the other sources present alternative views. The effect of aberration on the precession is not relevant to its origin.

Mar 20, 2014

WannabeNewton

Science Advisor

Hey guys! I just finished reading an interesting and rather instructive paper on gyroscopic precession. I may, in the immediate future, have some questions regarding specific parts of it but for now I just thought you guys would like to read it. Here's the link: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19890018085.pdf (if the pdf stops loading partway through then just download it).