Newtonian Computation of Perihelion Precession of Mercury—An Update

Rajat Roy

Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1101665                

Abstract

A updated numerical evaluation of the Newtonian component of Mercury’s perihelion advance over more than two centuries starting from about the year 2000 is made using the Euler’s algorithm as well as a modified Euler algorithm. Results are given for about the last 30 years of this interval which show that the precession rate may be substantially higher than what it is believed to be.

Keywords

Celestial Mechanics, Numerical Solution of ODE, Mercury

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Roy, R. (2014) A Comparative Study of the Advance of the Newtonian Component of Mercury’s Perihelion by Numerical Analysis and Perturbation Theory. Open Access Library Journal, 1, e958.
[2]	Roy, R. (2015) Calculation of Newtonian Component of Mercury’s Perihelion Advance by Euler’s Algorithm. Advances in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 8, 1-5.
[3]	Stewart, M.G. (2005) Precession of the Perihelion of Mercury’s Orbit. American Journal of Physics, 73, 730-734. http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.1949625