Our Astronomical Column

Abstract

THE RELATIVITY THEORY AND THE MOTION OF MERCURY'S PERIHELION.—The circumstance that especially attracted the attention of mathematicians to Einstein's new theory of relativity was the fact that it accounted for the whole excess of motion (43″ per century) of the perihelion of Mercury over that indicated by planetary theory. Dr. L. Silberstein, in a paper entitled The Motion of the Perihelion of Mercury deduced from the Classical Theory of Relativity (Monthly Notices, R.A.S., April, 1917), points out that it is not necessary for a relativity theory to explain the whole excess of Mercury perihelion; part of it can reasonably be ascribed to the stratum of matter composing the zodiacal light. He himself prefers the older, simpler relativity theory, which he asserts to be unobjectionable in its foundations, and to accord well with ob-. servation in the field of physics. He notes that it would not indicate the bending of a ray of light in a gravitational field, as Einstein's does. It is hoped that this critical experiment may be made at the total solar eclipse of May, 1919.