Special relativity - melting point of Mercury

[Super Nova]

The theory of special relativity is fascinating and in some of it effects, very logical. Some of it is just not intuitive and you need to stretch the brain a little to get it around it.

[Bobby]

The theory of special relativity is fascinating and in some of it effects, very logical. Some of it is just not intuitive and you need to stretch the brain a little to get it around it.

That's true and fancy that the element Mercury is affected so strongly by it?

And how strange that talking of Mercury - but now the planet !


https://aether.lbl.gov/www/classes/p10/ ... ercury.htm

Precession of the perihelion of Mercury

A long-standing problem in the study of the Solar System was that the orbit of Mercury did not behave as required by Newton's equations.

To understand what the problem is let me describe the way Mercury's orbit looks. As it orbits the Sun, this planet follows an ellipse...but only approximately: it is found that the point of closest approach of Mercury to the sun does not always occur at the same place but that it slowly moves around the sun (see Fig. 7.20). This rotation of the orbit is called a precession.
The precession of the orbit is not peculiar to Mercury, all the planetary orbits precess. In fact, Newton's theory predicts these effects, as being produced by the pull of the planets on one another. The question is whether Newton's predictions agree with the amount an orbit precesses; it is not enough to understand qualitatively what is the origin of an effect, such arguments must be backed by hard numbers to give them credence. The precession of the orbits of all planets except for Mercury's can, in fact, be understood using Newton;s equations. But Mercury seemed to be an exception.

also here:

Special Relativity and the Precession of the Perihelion

http://kirkmcd.princeton.edu/examples/perihelion.pdf

[Super Nova]

Now you move to the General Relativity. What an amazing theory thought up by one mind.

I have looked at it, studied videos. It is so complete it still stands after a century.

The unification with quantum mechanics may never be possible because it is just so complete and gravity is too weak to have any theory testable (for now). String theory appears dead.

[Bobby]

Now you move to the General Relativity. What an amazing theory thought up by one mind.

I have looked at it, studied videos. It is so complete it still stands after a century.

The unification with quantum mechanics may never be possible because it is just so complete and gravity is too weak to have any theory testable (for now). String theory appears dead.

It's amazing.
they thought there was another planet called Vulcan which caused the
precession of the perihelion of Mercury but Einstein showed that it was relativity causing it.
What a genius.
Even 10,000 years from now Einstein will still be in the textbooks.