The achievement of Newton's "theory of the moon's motion" of 1702
This study utilises computer programs to reconstruct the challenges which faced astronomers at the time of the founding of Britain's Royal Observatory. It focusses on the lunar theory articulated by Isaac Newton in 1702, showing how it was the precursor of what became embodied in the 1713 Principia as its lunar theory. Conceived as a kinematic mechanism, it has here been translated into trigonometric terms, and thence into machine-readable form. A computer replica of Newton's theory has thereby been composed and tested, and its accuracy for the first time assessed, resolving age-old controversies. The first British lunar theory, formed by Jeremiah Horrocks in the 1630s, was published by Flamsteed, and later modified and developed by Newton. As such it spread across Europe in the first half of the eighteenth century. It was later replaced by lunar theories derived from the Newtonian theory of gravity, which came to be called the 'Newtonian' theory, causing the theory actually promoted by Newton to be overlooked. Newton's theory had seven steps of equation as its distinctive feature, little appreciated by historians. No evidence remains that gravity theory, applied in a quantitative sense, assisted its composition.
Kollerstrom, Nicholas
Lunar theory; Newtonian astronomy
The achievement of Newton's "theory of the moon's motion" of 1702. This study utilises computer programs to reconstruct the challenges which faced astronomers at the time of the founding of Britain's Royal Observatory. It focusses on the lunar theory articulated by Isaac Newton in 1702, showing how it was the precursor of what became embodied in the 1713 Principia as its lunar theory. Conceived as a kinematic mechanism, it has here been translated into trigonometric terms, and thence into machine-readable form. A computer replica of Newton's theory has thereby been composed and tested, and its accuracy for the first time assessed, resolving age-old controversies. The first British lunar theory, formed by Jeremiah Horrocks in the 1630s, was published by Flamsteed, and later modified and developed by Newton. As such it spread across Europe in the first half of the eighteenth century. It was later replaced by lunar theories derived from the Newtonian theory of gravity, which came to be called the 'Newtonian' theory, causing the theory actually promoted by Newton to be overlooked. Newton's theory had seven steps of equation as its distinctive feature, little appreciated by historians. No evidence remains that gravity theory, applied in a quantitative sense, assisted its composition.
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