Title: Post Newtonian gravity, a new simpler approach

Authors: H. Ron Harrison

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, City University, London

Abstract: Galileo and Tycho Brahe made extensive astronomical observations which led Kepler to formulate his laws of planetary motion. All these observations were of relative motion. This led Newton to propose his theory of gravity, which could just as well have been expressed in a form that does not involve the concept of force. The approach in this paper extends the Newtonian theory and the special theory of relativity by including relative velocity based on the form of the measured data and also by comparison with electromagnetic effects. Application of the new single equation to the precession of the perihelion of Mercury, the gravitational deflection of light, the Shapiro time delay, the Schwarzschild radius and the last stable orbit gives results which agree with those of general relativity. Gravitational waves are also discussed. This approach could be used to determine non-Newtonian variations in the trajectories of satellites.

Keywords: gravity; gravitomagnetics; special theory of relativity; satellite orbits; last stable orbit; Shapiro time delay; gravitational waves; Newtonian theory; relative velocity; precession; perihelion of Mercury; light deflection; Schwarzschild radius; satellite trajectories; satellites.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPACESE.2016.081569

International Journal of Space Science and Engineering, 2016 Vol.4 No.2, pp.121 - 137

Received: 14 Jul 2016
Accepted: 14 Sep 2016
Published online: 13 Jan 2017 *

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