MadSci Network: Astronomy |
According to Pr.Trefil, Astronomy Feb2005 p48, Mercury's ellipse rotates about the sun even in the absence of Einstein's relativistic corrections to the Sun's gravitational field because of Newton's classical theory, and its perihelion advance equals 531 seconds of arc per century. My question is which formula did Isaac Newton use to perform his classical evaluation? I couldn't find the formula. Einstein's relativistic formula however is delta phi = 24 pi^3 a^2/T^2 c^2(1-e^2) where delta phi is the advance of perihelion, a the semimajor axis of the ellipse, T the revolution about the Sun, e the excentricity, c the speed of light.
Re: how do physicists calculate the advance of perihelion of Mercury?
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Astronomy.