help

Newtonian and General Relativistic Theory of Gravitation

-- Sameer | November 28, 2022

Question:

Hi Jeff,
My name is Sameer and I’m from India. I have question related to planets orbiting Sun. When my daughter asked me question how all planets orbits around the sun,I got two theories, one by Sir Isaac Newton and other one by Sir Albert Einstein (General Relativity Theory).

As I read earlier, I thought because of bend in space by Sun mass all planets are revolving around the sun, however many says that because of Sun gravitational force planets are revolving around the sun

I would like to know which is the right answer and how does it works

Thankyou so much

-- Sameer

Answer:

In fact, both the Newtonian and General Relativistic (due to Einstein) theories of gravitation are correct on large scales. It is when you look at things that happen on small scales, such as the perihelion precession of the orbit of Mercury or gravitational lensing, that the Newtonian theory of gravitation breaks-down, but Einstein’s theory correctly explains.

-- Jeff Mangum

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