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From: scottm@tektronix.UUCP (Scott Maxson)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: RE: laser gyroscopes
Message-ID: <3505@tektronix.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Aug-84 12:03:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: tektronix.3505
Posted: Thu Aug 30 12:03:59 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Sep-84 11:13:42 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 14

<>
  I think that the principle involved in laser gyroscopes comes
from something called the 'Sagnac Effect'.  As I recall, it has
to do with how the angular momentum flux vectors of the electro-
magnetic field transform under Lorentz transformations, the basic
transformations of relativity.  The argument is very elegant 
mathematically; I like to think (perhaps incorrectly!) that the
counter-rotating beams of the laser gyroscope 'sample' the space
they travel through differently because of the rotation and thus
give diffent answers when asked what their wavelengths are.

S. Maxson
tektronix!scottm
Portland, OR.