Many spacecraft use the “ring laser” type of these devices for navigation. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name these devices for maintaining orientation and angular velocity that consist of a wheel mounted to gimbals that provide pivoted supports.
ANSWER: gyroscopes [accept ring laser gyroscopes]
[10h] This experiment used four gyroscopes on a satellite to measure spacetime curvature near Earth to verify general relativity’s predictions of the geodetic effect and frame-dragging. This experiment followed a test of the equivalence principle.
ANSWER: Gravity Probe B [or GP-B] (The earlier experiment is Gravity Probe A.)
[10m] As they exhibit angular velocity, ring laser gyroscopes measure rotation via this phenomenon. This phenomenon is observed in the Sagnac (“SAN-yak”) effect and produces namesake “fringes.”
ANSWER: wave interference [accept interference fringes]
<Ganon Evans, Science - Physics> ~20832~ <Editor: David Bass>