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Sagnac effect

Sagnac effect noun: a phenomenon encountered in interferometry that is elicited by rotation. The Sagnac effect manifests itself in a setup called a ring interferometer. A beam of light is split and the two beams are made to follow the same path but in opposite directions. To act as a ring the trajectory must enclose an area. On return to the point of entry the two light beams are allowed to exit the ring and undergo interference. The relative phases of the two exiting beams, and thus the position of the interference fringes, are shifted according to the angular velocity of the apparatus.

Noun

Sagnac effect (plural Sagnac effects)

  1. A phenomenon encountered in interferometry that is elicited by rotation. The Sagnac effect manifests itself in a setup called a ring interferometer. A beam of light is split and the two beams are made to follow the same path but in opposite directions. To act as a ring the trajectory must enclose an area. On return to the point of entry the two light beams are allowed to exit the ring and undergo interference. The relative phases of the two exiting beams, and thus the position of the interference fringes, are shifted according to the angular velocity of the apparatus.

Forms of Sagnac effect

pluralSagnac effects

Origin of Sagnac effect

Named after French physicist Georges Sagnac.

Questions about Sagnac effect

What does Sagnac effect mean?
Sagnac effect means a phenomenon encountered in interferometry that is elicited by rotation. The Sagnac effect manifests itself in a setup called a ring interferometer. A beam of light is split and the two beams are made to follow the same path but in opposite directions. To act as a ring the trajectory must enclose an area. On return to the point of entry the two light beams are allowed to exit the ring and undergo interference. The relative phases of the two exiting beams, and thus the position of the interference fringes, are shifted according to the angular velocity of the apparatus.
What part of speech is Sagnac effect?
Sagnac effect is a noun.
What is the plural of Sagnac effect?
The plural of Sagnac effect is Sagnac effects.

Words near Sagnac effect in the dictionary

  1. sagittocyst
  2. sagittocysts
  3. sagless
  4. Sagmin
  5. Sagmone
  6. Sagnac effect
  7. Sagnac effects
  8. sago
  9. sago fern
  10. sago palm
  11. sago palms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Sagnac effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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