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Letter: All in a spin

Published 3 August 2002

From David Giles

Of course the Universe is spinning! Every free-floating particle or celestial body or galaxy is rotating, and I hope no one these days would ask the question asked by Ernst Mach in 1893, “relative to what?” (13 July, p 17).

An accelerometer attached to a spinning flywheel would show an acceleration – the spring pulling inwards to stop the weight flying off tangentially. The flywheel could be in deep space with no visible reference point.

Don, Tasmania

Issue no. 2354 published 3 August 2002

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