X-Nico

2 unusual facts about precession


Precession

de Sitter precession a general relativistic correction accounting for the Schwarzschild metric of curved space near a large non-rotating mass.

If the rotating body is symmetrical and its motion unconstrained, and, if the torque on the spin axis is at right angles to that axis, the axis of precession will be perpendicular to both the spin axis and torque axis.


Allais

Allais effect, claimed anomalous precession of the plane of oscillation of a pendulum during a solar eclipse

André Berger

He became known in 1977 for his paper in Nature and later in the Journal of Atmospheric Physics (1978) delivering all the spectral components of the long term variations of eccentricity, obliquity (axial tilt) and climatic precession.

Astronomical chronology

Thus the attempts to date Vedic texts describing the Pleiades as rising "due East" to about 2300 BCE, which is the time when the Pleiades rose "exactly" due East, is complicated by the fact that poetic descriptions need not be taken as reflecting precise astronomical observations, while precession is a very slow process which makes only small changes in the azimuth of a star rising in the East.

Frame-dragging

However, the inclusion of the radiometric data from the Magellan orbiter recently allowed Pitjeva to greatly improve the determination of the unmodelled precession of the perihelion of Venus.

James Hays

Using ocean sediment cores, the Science paper verified the theories of Milutin Milanković that oscillations in climate can be correlated with Earth's orbital variations of eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession around the Sun (see Milankovitch cycles).

Thirring

Lense–Thirring precession, a relativistic correction to the precession of a gyroscope


see also