Abstract
Special relativity predicts that a spinning object with a constant angular momentum in its rest frame, when transported around an orbit, will undergo the Thomas precession in the laboratory frame. As no torque is applied in the rest frame of the gyroscope, it appears that the principle of conservation of angular momentum is violated. In this paper, we show that in fact the Thomas precession of the gyroscope is accompanied by a torque emerging due to the Lorentz transformation of the force acting on segments of the gyroscope. Using the derived formula for torque, we find the standard expression for the Thomas precession rate. Advantages of our approach compared to a work on the same problem, by Muller (1992 Am. J. Phys. 60 313–317), are discussed.
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