Einstein’sPaper: “Explanationofthe ...

← Back to document page

Einstein s Paper: Explanation of thePerihelion Motion of Mercury from GeneralRelativity theory Anatoli Andrei VankovIPPE, Obninsk, Russia; Bethany College, KS, USA; s original paper Explanation of the Perihelion Motion ofMercury from General relativity theory , 1915, published in Germanand decades later translated into English, remains hardly accessible forreaders. We present the translation recently made by Professor RogerRydin from the University of Virginia who paid much attention to lin-guistic fidelity and scientific adequacy of the texts. It is followed withour critical Comments concerning the rigor of Einstein s derivation ofthe equation of motion and the corresponding approximate solutionleading to the perihelion advance formula.

According to general theory of relativity, the elliptical orbit of a planet re-ferred to a Newtonian frame of reference rotates in its own plane in the same

  Theory, Relativity, Theory of relativity