Transcription of Einstein’sPaper: “Explanationofthe ...
1 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.
2 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. The latter was obtainedin numerous works later on from the Schwarzschild exact presented it firstly in his letter to Einsteinand claimedthe formula derived from his solution identical to Einstein s one. Wedraw readers attention to the fact, however, that some parameters inthe Schwarzschild s formula have different physical meanings. Thismakes formulas, though formally similar, not identical.
3 Yet, one candirectly verify that, no matter how the equation is derived,its widelyclaimed approximate solution does not fit the words: Einstein, Schwarzschild, General relativity , Mercuryperihelion, field +p, 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 samedirection as the planet The observations cannot bemade in a Newto-nian frame of reference. They are affected by the precession ofthe equinoxes,and the determination of the precessional motion is one of the most difficultproblems of observational astronomy.
4 It is not surprising that a differenceof opinions could exist regarding the closeness of agreement of observed andtheoretical I am not aware that relativity is at present regarded byphysicists as a theory that may be believed or not, at will. Nevertheless, itmay be of some interest to present the most recent evidence onthe degree ofagreement between the observed and theoretical motions of the Clemence ( Rev. Mod. , 361364, 1947)2 Erkl arung der Perihelbewegung des Merkur aus der allgemeinenRealtivit atstheorieVon A. EinsteinAccording to The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein (see ourNotes),this is the lecture given to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, 18 November 1915 by A.
5 Einstein. Published 25 November 1915 inK oniglichPreu ische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin). Sitzungsberichte (1915) Einstein s paper, 1915 Translation of the paper (along with Schwarzschild s letter to Einstein) byRoger A. Rydin with the following comments by Anatoli A. VankovExplanation of the Perihelion Motion of Mercury from GeneralRelativity TheoryAlbert EinsteinIntroductionIn an earlier version of the work appearing in this journal, Ihave presentedthe field equations of gravity, which are covariant under corresponding trans-formations having a determinant equals unity.
6 In an Addendumto this work,I have shown that each of the field equations is generally covariant when thescalar of the energy tensor of the matter vanishes, and I havethereby shownfrom the introduction of this hypothesis, through which time and space arerobbed of the last vestige of objective reality, that in principle there are nodoubts standing against this a soon to follow manuscript, it will be shown that such a hypothesis is is only important that one such choice of coordinate system is possible, in which thedeterminant|g |takes the value 1.
7 The following investigation is then this work, I found an important confirmation of this radical Relativitytheory; it exhibits itself namely in the secular turning of Mercury in thecourse of its orbital motion, as was discovered by Le Verrier. Namely, theapproximately 45 per century amount is qualitatively and quantitativelyexplained without the special hypotheses that he had to , it shows that this theory has a stronger (doubly strong)light bending effect in consequence through the gravitational field than itamounted to in my earlier Gravitational FieldAs my last two papers have shown, the gravitational field in a vacuumfor a suitably chosen system of coordinates has to satisfy the followingX x +X = 0(1)
8 Whereby the quantity is defined through = = X g ( )= 12X g " g x + g x g x #(2)Otherwise, we make the same fundamental hypothesis as in thelast paper,that the scalar of the energy tensor of the material alwaysvanishes, so thatwe have the determinant equation|g |= 1(3)We place a point mass (the Sun) at the origin of the gravitational field, which this mass point produces, canbe calculatedfrom these equations through successive this regard, one may think that theg for the given solar mass is notyet mathematically fully determined through (1) and (3).
9 Itfollows fromit that these equations with the necessary transformation with the determi-nant equal to unity are covariant. It should be correct in this case to consider2E. Freundlich wrote in an earlier contribution about the impossibility that the anomalyof the motion of Mercury is satisfied on the basis of Newtoniantheory, (Astr. Nachr. 4803,Vol. 201, June 1915).4that all these solutions through such transformations can be reduced to oneanother, that they themselves are also (by given boundary conditions) onlyformally but not physically distinguishable from one another.
10 These over-lying considerations allow me to obtain a solution without considering thequestion whether or not it is the only unique the above in mind, we go forward. Theg is given next in the zero-th approximation in accord with the relativity theory scheme 1 0 0 00 1 0 00 0 1 00 0 0 1 (4)Or more compactlyg = ;g 4=g4 = 0;g44= 1(4a)Hereby, and are the indices 1,2,3: the is the Kronecker delta symbolequal to 1 or 0, that is when either = or 6= .We now set forward the following, that theg differ from the values givenin (4a) by an amount that is small compared to unity.
