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Volume 12: Pages 468-486, 1999

Classical Description of the Advance of the Perihelion of Mercury

P. Marmet

Physics Department, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada

Einstein's general relativity requires space and time distortions to explain the advance of the perihelion of Mercury. This requirement is unnecessary. We show here that this phenomenon can be fully explained using Newtonian physics and mass‐energy conservation, without any relativity principle. Without having to introduce any new physics, we arrive at the same equation as predicted by Einstein. Similar consequences have been obtained when studying other relevant phenomena. Therefore, space is mathematically flat and the relativity principles are useless.

Keywords: Einstein, relativity, perihelion of Mercury, classical mechanics, space‐time, space contraction, time dilation, precession, relativity principle, Einstein's theory

Received: January 16, 1999; Published online: December 15, 2008