Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/299

Rh among people. It was therefore a happy duty of the astronomers to show that the comets also move in orbits around the Sun, and are subject to the same laws as the planets. This work was easier because the comets move nearly in parabolas, which are the simplest of the conic sections. Still the general problem of finding the six elements of an orbit from the six data given by three observations remained to be solved. The solution was given by Gauss a century ago in a very elegant manner. His book is a model, and one of the best ever written on theoretical astronomy. No better experience can be had for a student than to come in contact with such a book and with such an author. The solution of Laplace for the orbit of a comet is general, but demands more labor of computing than the method of Olbers, as arranged by Gauss. It is said by some writers that the method of Laplace is to be preferred because more than three observations can be used. In fact this is necessary in order to get good values of the derivatives of the longitudes and latitudes with respect to the time, but it leads to long and rather uncertain computations. Moreover it employs more data than are necessary, and thus is a departure from the mathematical theory of the problem. This method is ingenious, and by means of the derivatives it gives an interesting rule for judging of the distance of a comet from the earth by the curvature of its apparent path, but a trial shows that the method of Olbers is much shorter. Good preliminary orbits can now be computed for comets and planets without much labor. This, however, is only a beginning of the work of determining their actual motions. The planets act on each other and on the comets, and it is necessary to compute the result of these forces. Here again the conditions of our solar system furnish peculiar advantages. The great mass of the sun exerts such a superior force that the attractions of the planets are relatively small, so that the first orbits, computed by neglecting this interaction, are nearly correct. But the interactions of planets become important with the lapse of time, and the labor of computing these perturbations is very great. This work has been done repeatedly, and we now have good numerical values of the theories of the principal planets, from which tables can be made. Practically, therefore, this question appears to be well toward a final solution. But the whole story has not been told.

The planets, on account of their relative distances being great and because their figures are nearly spherical, can be considered as material particles and then the equations of motion are readily formed. In the case of n material particles acting on each other by the Newtonian law, and free from external action, we shall have 3n differential equations of motion, and 6n integrations are necessary for the complete solution. Of these only ten can be made, so that in the case of only three bodies there remain eight integrations that cannot be found. The early