Title: Confirming Einstein's Theory of General Relativity with Calculus
Abstract: Mercury's orbit around the Sun is not a perfect ellipse but a spiral that slowly precesses by 574 seconds of arc per century. In the 19th century, the discrepancy between observation and prediction (531 seconds of arc per century) was the outstanding unresolved difficulty with Newtonian physics. In 1915, this discrepancy of 43 seconds was resolved by Einstein's general theory of relativity. In this talk, by creatively using techniques taught in calculus and precalculus, we will derive and solve the differential equations that predict the precession in a planet's orbit.
Presented by the UNT Undergraduate Mathematics Colloquium.