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

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the rotation of Foucault's pendulum swing plane and Thomas precession are mathematically analogous, using simple geometric methods to derive their expressions, revealing them as two aspects of the same phenomenon.

Contribution

It introduces a unified geometric approach to derive the rotation angles for both Foucault's pendulum and Thomas precession, highlighting their fundamental connection.

Findings

Derived simple geometric expressions for both phenomena

Showed the mathematical equivalence of the two rotation effects

Provided insights into the underlying physics connecting the two phenomena

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).