Device and method for detecting the relative position of a rotatable body

The current invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the angular position of a rotatable body, in particular a body which can rotate by more than 360°, according to the preambles to claims and . An apparatus for detecting the angular position of a first rotatable body (, L) has a number n of uniform angle markings or teeth (), with at least two rotatable gear wheels (), which respectively have n, n, n, nuniform angle markings or teeth. The angle markings of the at least two rotatable gear wheels () cooperate with the angle markings () of the first rotatable body () in such a way that by detecting the angular positions , of the at least two rotatable gear wheels (), the angular position a of the first rotatable body can be determined. When there are two of the at least two rotatable gear wheels (), ¦n-n¦>1 and (n, n)=1 or n, nare relatively prime and when there are more than two of the at least two rotatable gear wheels, (n, n)=1, where 1=i