A CONFIRMATION OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY

LE VERRIER, URBAIN JEAN JOSEPH.

Recherches sur L'Orbite de Mercure et sur ses Pertubations. Détermination de la Masse de Vénus et du Diamètre du Soleil;

(Paris, Imprimerie de Bachelier), 1843.

4to. Recent blue boards. 87, (1) pp. Clean and fine. In "Journal de Mathématiques pures et appliquées", tome VIII.

Scarce first separate edition of Le Verrier's provisional theory on the motion of Mercury, his studies of which eventually did much to demonstrate the validity of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The separate edition - as we have it here - is paginated 1-87, while the periodical version is paginated 273-359.

The planetary orbits should agree with the predictions of the General Theory of relativity, but as Einstein pointed out in his "Erklärung der Perihelbewegung des Merkurs aus der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie" from 1915, the divergences predicted were too small to be observed, except in the case of the nearest planet Mercury, where the perihelion advance, according to the formula, reaches the value of 43"" per 100 years, being in full agreement with the calculations of Le Verrier, who found this unexplained rest in the perihelion advance of Mercury per century, if the perturbations due to the other planets are deduced.- Einstein tells in a letter to a friend that for several days he was in a 'state of delirious joy' by this wonderful astronomical confirmation of his theory.

"Le Verrier first began to study Mercury on the suggestion of Arago in 1840. Astronomers realized that Mercury's perihelion (the point at which the orbit of a planet is closest to the sun) advanced along its orbit at a rate of 566 seconds per century. Le Verrier calculated that, even when taking into account the forces exerted by other planets in the solar system, there still existed a discrepancy between calculation and observation. Le verrier's accurate calculations showed that the planet's perihelion...did indeed advance forty seconds of an arc per century more than could be accounted for by Newton's theory of gravitation, even after the minor pertubing effects of the other planets had been allowed for." (Asimov). - Le verrier published these findings in the present work, carefully as to the mass of the planet, comparison with other orbits of planets and their perihelia. At the time, Le Verrier put down the discrepancy to mis-observation or mis-calculation.- Sparrow, Milestones of Science No. 133.

Order-nr.: 38810