Book Description

Excerpt from An Elementary Treatise on the Lunar Theory: With a Brief Sketch of the History of the Problem Up to the Time of Newton Of all the celestial bodies whose motions have formed the subject of the investigations of astronomers, the Moon has always been regarded as that which presents the greatest difficulties, on account of the number of inequalities to which it is subject; but the frequent and important applications of the results render the Lunar Problem one of the highest interest, and we find that it has occupied the attention of the most celebrated astronomers from the earliest times. Newton's discovery of Universal Gravitation, suggested, it is supposed, by a rough consideration of the motions of the moon, led him naturally to examine its application to a more severe explanation of her disturbances; and his Eleventh Section is the first attempt at a theoretical investigation of the Lunar inequalities. The results he obtained were found to agree very nearly with those determined by observation, and afforded a remarkable confirmation of the truth of his great principle; but the geometrical methods which he had adopted seem inadequate to so complicated a theory, and recourse has been had to analysis for a complete determination of the disturbances, and for a knowledge of the true orbit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.