The tag has no wiki summary.

learn more… | top users | synonyms

4
votes
2answers
76 views

Why do gyroscopes not maintain their stability as seen in this video

What exactly causes gyroscopes to oscillate as seen in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdAmEEAiJWo Even when my toy gyroscope spins on Earth, I get oscillations. Is this a result of ...
9
votes
3answers
234 views

What's wrong with this application of Thomas Precession to circular motion velocity measurements?

If you happen to have the Third Edition of Classical Electrodynamics by John David Jackson, turn to section 11.8, as that's where I'm getting all this from. If not, you should still be able to follow ...
1
vote
0answers
32 views

Mercury's Orbital Precession in Special Relativity

I am researching Mercury's orbital precession. I have considered most perturbations and general relativity. I am still not satisfied. I need your help. I need a solution to Exercise 13, Chapter 6, in ...
2
votes
2answers
537 views

What causes precession or nutation in a spinning object?

What causes precession in a spinning object? What causes nutation in a spinning object? What causes a top, gyroscope, and the earth to wobble? Just because it's a simple question, I'm not ...
6
votes
2answers
228 views

What happens to orbits at small radii in general relativity?

I know that (most) elliptic orbits precess due to the math of general relativity, like this: source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-body_problem_in_general_relativity I also know that something ...
2
votes
2answers
303 views

Does the length of the sidereal day vary systematically?

I'm confused about some properties of the sidereal day, in particular whether its duration varies systematically over the course of the year.1 It seems to me that that must be the case, but the ...
2
votes
1answer
142 views

Will a precessing spinning whell fall down if there is no friction at all?

If there where no friction at all, would a spinning wheel held up by one end of the axis spin precess forever without falling down? I just asked another question about the same problem: Direction ...
1
vote
3answers
856 views

Direction of torque precession of a spinning wheel

Consider a spinning wheel, which is held up by one end of it's axis like this: To explain why the change of angular momentum is directed as shown in the figure above, one usually says that there is ...
4
votes
1answer
189 views

Does the Moon's orbital inclination follow the wobble in the Earth's rotation?

As the Earth wobbles during rotation, does the higher gravity at the equator tend to pull the moon toward an equatorial orbit even as the earth does that thousands of years wobble cycle? It would ...
4
votes
1answer
127 views

What is the definition of precession (in the context of Spinors)?

What is the definition of "precession"? How is it applicable to abstract objects such as Spinors? I understand the mathematics, but don't understand what one means by "precession angle" etc when it ...
2
votes
0answers
40 views

Does Celestia take the lunar orbit precession into account?

Does the lunar orbit plane rotate (8 year period precession)? Does Celestia take this into account while drawing the moon orbit?
13
votes
2answers
1k views

What did general relativity clarify about Mercury?

I frequently hear that Kepler, using his equations of orbital motion, could predict the orbits of all the planets to a high degree of accuracy -- except Mercury. I've heard that mercury's motion ...
5
votes
1answer
155 views

Why can you assume that the angular momentum vector of a top will always track its axis of rotation?

My favorite physics 101 textbook (Giancoli) explains precession in terms of a spinning top whose axis is tilted from the vertical. The way the book sets things up, $L$ (angular momentum) points along ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views

How do you calculate the anomalous precession of Mercury?

One of the three classic tests of general relativity is the calculation of the precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit. This precession rate had been precisely measured using data collected ...
0
votes
3answers
3k views

Period of Precession

I'm trying to find the period of precession for a gyroscope. Now I was able to find the angular precession rate, which was 1.132 rad/s, but I have no idea how to convert this to a 'period', and google ...
15
votes
8answers
4k views

Why don't spinning tops fall over?

One topic which was covered in university, but which I never understood, is how a spinning top "magically" resists the force of gravity. The conservation of energy explanations make sense, but I don't ...