I Details in calculations from 19th century astronomy

AI Thread Summary
Urban LeVerrier calculated the precession of Mercury's perihelion using Newtonian mechanics in 1859, prompting interest in the details of his calculations. To perform similar gravitational force calculations, one must determine the distances between Mercury and other planets, which can be done with textbook data. The discussion highlights the complexity of predicting Neptune's location, noting that modern methods involve inverse problems typically solved by computers, but starting points for hand calculations are still relevant. The methodology involves simplifying the problem by treating other planets as rings of equal mass, making it analytically accessible. Overall, understanding these historical calculations enhances appreciation for 19th-century astronomy.
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Is there a website or paper that shows the calculation in detail?
I’ve read that Urban LeVerrier was able to calculate using Newtonian mechanics the precession of the perihelion point of Mercury’s orbit (1859). Is there a website or paper that shows the calculation in detail?

In particular:

  • How would one decide on the distance between Mercury and the other planets to perform the calculation of the gravitational force?
  • (Can a physics student perform this calculation armed with just the planetary data in the back of the textbook?)
  • A related question: is there a website or paper that shows details of LeVerrier’s calculation to predict the location of the planet Neptune?
  • (I’ve read that this problem would be an inverse problem in modern mathematics and solved with computers, but can someone provide the starting point of this calculation on paper?)
 
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You replace the other planets by rings with the same mass, that makes the calculation accessible analytically. Here is a website doing this.
 
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Thank you for the suggestion and the weblink. I've been interested in doing this calculation by hand for the precession of the perihelion points.

If I want to calculate where to find Neptune in the night sky (famous by-hand calculation of Adams and LeVerrier for the discovery of this planet), what would be the starting point for the calculation?
And is there another website for that calculation?
 
You can't do that just from the perihelion precession - and Uranus has an orbital period of 84 years, longer than the time difference between the discovery of Uranus and Neptune. You can calculate the motion assuming there is only the Sun and Saturn and Jupiter (the rest doesn't matter), compare that to the actual motion, and then look what could explain the difference. The calculations are lengthy if you do this by hand and I don't know if there is an online version of them.
 
Thank you for explaining the methodology of the calculation. That makes this famous bit of science history more understandable to me.
 
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