Gyroscope precession and general relativity

Precession of a gyroscope in the presence of a gravitational field is of considerable interest, on account of the soon to be launched satellite test and because of its connection to Mach’s principle. Nevertheless, this topic is not generally covered in the curriculum because of the mathematical sophistication required. We examine some of the simple physics involved and argue that by examining simple graviton-elementary particle couplings one can easily understand this phenomenon