Gyroscope precession and general relativity

Precession of a gyroscope in the presence of a gravitational field is of co nsiderable interest, on account of the soon to be launched satellite test a nd because of its connection to Mach's principle. Nevertheless, this topic is not generally covered in the curriculum because of the mathematical soph istication required. We examine some of the simple physics involved and arg ue that by examining simple graviton-elementary particle couplings one can easily understand this phenomenon. (C) 2001 American Association of Physics Teachers.