This sounds very interesting. But could you give me a geometric analogy with a precessing (non-tangent) vector on a 2D curved surface in 3D euclidean space? Or is the quest for such an analogy hopeless??
But on a cone, unlike on a sphere, you cannot construct a loop-closing geodesic! So it seems obvious to me why all loop-closing trajectories have precession: because they are NOT geodesic! Along (open) geodesics on a cone precession does NOT occur.
Incidentally, I think this whole problem is...
Cleonis:
Thanks a lot for your suggestion. Although I couldn't find direct references to geodetic precession in the River Model links you mentioned, but I am very hopeful that I'll find the answer to my problem there, so I'll check those papers in detail.
I am a little doubtful of your...
Could anyone give me a descriptive picture on WHY geodetic precession occurs? I understand the equations from which it follows, so I can derive it algebraically, but I would like to get an intuitive feeling of why it occurs too.
My problem is the following: parallel transport of vectors along...