One of my favorite physics blunders is described in the article “The Planet That Wasn’t” by Isaac Asimov. [1]

In the nineteenth century, astronomers had a problem. They could predict the motion of all of the known planets around the Sun based on Newton’s Theory of Gravity. But their predictions were not quite right unless they accounted for how each planet tugs very gently on the others.

In 1843, Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier realized that Mercury’s motion did not quite match what was expected. He suggested that there must be another planet, not yet discovered, that was closer to the Sun than Mercury. He named this theoretical planet Vulcan.

It turns out that nobody ever found the planet Vulcan, even though many astronomers made an attempt. It doesn’t exist.

In fact, the motion of Mercury can not be completely predicted by Newton’s Theory of Gravity. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is needed. The mass equivalence of the Sun’s energy is enough to influence Mercury’s motion.

For the complete story, read “The Planet That Wasn’t”, by Isaac Asimov.

[1] http://geobeck.tripod.com/frontier/planet.htm

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Welcome to these ramblings concerning physics blunders. We’ll look at a few movies, perhaps some books, and a bit of history.  The world is full of physics blunders, and this is a safe place to discuss them.

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