3D Solid State Gyro

Recently, Morgans posted:

"Neil Gould" wrote

I still don't quite understand the "no moving parts" claim from the
manufacturers.

So what is moving? Light? That does not qualify as a part, IMHO.

I said I *don't understand* that aspect of the design at this point, so I
have no basis to confirm or dispute that there are no moving parts.

The patent app that I referenced is quite vague about how "...the angular
velocity applied to the fiber optic coil about the axis thereof..." would
result in any phase shift if the length of the light path is unchanged by
virtue of the light source and coil being fixed in relation to one another
("solid state"). OTOH, if the device works based on a change in position
between the light source and the coil due to an angular velocity, then it
has moving parts, and the light interference pattern simply measures the
amount of movement.

So, if you *do* understand how it works without moving parts, I would
appreciate a clearer explanation.

Neil

Neil Gould schrieb:

I said I *don't understand* that aspect of the design

Don't feel bad about it: Understanding a Fiber Optic Gyroscope is pretty
involved.

As an (incorrect!) starting point, you could think like this: You send a
light flash in both directions through the ring. The light needs some
time to travel through the fiber. If you turn, you will have changed
your position until you receive the light again, so that the light in
one direction has to travel more than 360 degrees, while in the other
direction the path is shorter than 360 degrees. Tiny as the difference
is, you can measure that.

As I said, this approach is *not* correct, but it may help you to
understand how such a thing *might* work. However, you can not
understand the Fiber Optic Gyroscope without understanding the theory of
relativity. So a reasonable approach for a non-physisict is to just
believe that it works.

Stefan