IT 



ON A MISTAKE WHICH EXISTS IN THE SOLAR TABLES OF 



MAYER, LA LANDE AND ZACH. 



BY NATHANIEL BOWDITCH, LL. D. 



I 



X HE attraction of Jupiter produces an equation in the expres 



of the Sun's distance from the Earth, and a Tahle 



given 



for its computation by May 

 lished 



in England in the year I77O by the Com 

 Longitude, republished by La Lande in his Astion 

 Zach, in his Tahulce Mot. Sol. &c. Goth. 179S, &:c. 



m 



er remarkable, that ever since this Table was 



page S5 of the collection pub- 



nissioners of 



amy, and by 

 but it is rath- 



i was first published, 

 which is about fifty years, an error of six signs has always existed 



found 



that wh 



frequently be found by 



This error probably 



in the argument by which the correction 



the equation is really suhtractive, it will 



the Table to be additive, and the contrary 



arose from using the longitude of the Sun, instead of that of the 



Earth, in finding the angle of commutation t, which is the ar-u- 



ment of that equation. 



If we retain only the two greatest terms of the correction of the 



earth's radius vector depending on Jup 

 La Place in page 1( 

 put for brevity n"" t 



vol. 



of his 



§ 



Mecanique Celeste 



n t + t 



J 



and 



00159384! 



t, they will becom 



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