Newton, Robert Russell

Robert Russell Newton was born in Tennessee . He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in physics from the University of Tennessee. During the Second World War, he took part in pioneering studies of ballistic missiles and co-authored an authoritative book on the theory of the flight of unguided missiles ^[1] . After defending a dissertation at Ohio State University ( 1946 , supervisor Lüelyn Thomas , topic “Large-amplitude internal molecular vibrations using symmetrical ammonia vibrations” ^[2] ), Newton began working at the Bell Laboratory , but soon returned to science as a professor of physics, first at the University Tennessee ( 1948 - 1955 ), and then the University of Tulan (1955 - 1957 ). At this time, he continued research in the field of ballistics. R.R. Newton began working at the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory of Applied Physics in 1957. In 1959 , when the space research and analysis department was formed in the laboratory, he became its head and remained in this position until 1983 . R. R. Newton personally dealt with the theoretical problems of accurately determining the orbits of artificial earth satellites (AES) by measuring the Doppler effect and determining small geographical variations in the gravitational field of the Earth from changes in satellite orbits. These studies ( 1958 - 1967 ), reflected in more than 50 scientific publications, made it possible to significantly improve the capabilities of predicting satellite orbits and laid the foundation for modern satellite navigation systems , and also allowed to improve the accuracy of determining the shape of the Earth by orders of magnitude.

In the 1970s, R. R. Newton drew attention to the influence of tidal friction on the motion of the Earth, the Moon, and other planets. He came to the conclusion that ancient astronomical observations of solar and lunar eclipses, as well as coatings and connections of planets, can be useful for studying these effects. And although the accuracy of these observations by modern standards is small, the large interval of time separating these observations from our time, and the statistical processing of a large number of observations allow us to detect many subtle effects.

The scientist investigated many hundreds of descriptions of observations of solar and lunar eclipses and other astronomical phenomena in ancient and medieval chronicles and in the works of ancient and medieval European, Arab and Eastern astronomers. These studies have shown that the slowing down of the Earth’s rotation is uneven and cannot be explained only by tidal friction, but is also associated with other non-gravitational processes determined by geophysical and climatic processes. At the same time, such effects can lead to fairly fast, as compared with the geological scale, changes in the slowing down of the Earth’s rotation, for example, associated with a change in its torque when freeing from glaciers. The studies of R. R. Newton in this field were continued by other scientists ^[3] and reached a new level with the development of new approaches based on the data of the laser location of the Moon and satellite studies of geodynamics .

The early works of R. R. Newton in this direction are cited by the creators of the so-called “ New Chronology ” as allegedly refuting the accuracy of ancient astronomical observations with astronomical methods. However, the key to this theory is the hasty conclusion of Newton about the "jump" in the acceleration of lunar elongation in the interval from 700 to 1300 AD. er not only was not supported by other scientists, but was later discarded by Newton himself ^[4] , when the large amount of data collected by him showed that the fluctuations were of a much smoother character and have a natural explanation. In particular, RR Newton found that these changes correlate with changes in the Earth’s magnetic field ^[5] . In addition, the vast amount of factual material collected by Newton about astronomical observations in ancient times and the Middle Ages, which is in perfect agreement with modern astronomical calculations, leaves no room for a review of global historical chronology.

RR Newton devoted much attention in his studies to the ancient astronomer Claudius Ptolemy . From his point of view, the scientific methods of the Alexandrian do not correspond to modern ideas about scientific ethics. In particular, in the book The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, R. R. Newton argued that Ptolemy did not compile his star catalog based on his own observations, but borrowed it from Hipparchus, counting the longitudes of the stars for his era. Newton also accused Ptolemy of falsifying and fitting his own and others' observations in order to better agree with the calculations on his theory. Most major historians of astronomy did not support such sharp estimates, opposing the application of modern emotional estimates to astronomers of antiquity ^[6] ; at the same time, some critics accuse RR Newton himself of gross errors in the calculations ^{[7] [8]} . Nevertheless, this notorious book of Newton contains a number of interesting findings, which include the hypothesis about the authorship of the star catalog contained in the Almagest , which, however, was expressed earlier by other researchers. The calculations made by Russian scientists of their own star motions from the Ptolemy catalog gave extra weight to Newton’s assumption that Ptolemy really used Hipparchus’s coordinates ( II century BC ) in his catalog, recalculating its data for some time with the erroneous value of the precession ^{[9 ]} .

• Rosser, JB Newton, RR and Gross, GL (1947) Mathematical Theory of Rocket Flight . New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

• Newton, RR (1959). Periodic orbits of a planetoid passing close to two gravitating masses. Smithsonian Contribution to Astrophysics 3: 69.

• Newton, RR (1964). Geodesy by satellite . Science, v. 144, # 3632, pp. 803–808.

• Newton, RR (1968). A sattelite determination of tidal parameters and Earth deceleration . Geophys. JR Astron. Soc., V. 14, # 5, pp. 505-539.

• Newton, RR (1969). Secular accelerations of Earth and Moon . Science, v. 166, # 3907, pp. 825-831.

• Newton, RR (1970). Ancient Astronomical Observations and the Earth and Moon . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR, Jenkins RE (1972). Possible use of Stonehenge . Nature, v. 239, # 5374, pp. 511-512.

• Newton, RR (1972). Medieval chronicles and the rotation of the earth . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Newton, RR (1972). Astronomical evidence concerning non-gravitational forces in the Earth-Moon system . Astrophysics and Space Science, 16, pp. 179-200.

• Newton, RR (1973). Authenticity of Ptolemy's parallax data .1. Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V. 14, # 4, pp. 367-388.

• Newton, RR (1974). Authenticity of Ptolemy's parallax data .2. Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V. 15, # 1, pp. 7–27.

• Newton, RR (1974). Authenticity of Ptolemy's eclipse and star data . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V. 15, # 2, pp. 107–121.

• Newton, RR (1974). Astronomy in ancient literal societies - Introduction to some basic astronomical concepts . Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 276, pp. 5–20. (The place of astronomy in the ancient world).
• Newton, RR (1974). Two uses of ancient astronomy . Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 276, pp. 99-110 (The place of astronomy in the ancient world)
• Newton, RR (1974). The obliquity of the ecliptic two millenia ago. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. v. 169, pp. 331—342

• Newton, RR (1974). Applications of ancient astronomy to study of time . Endeavor, v. 32, # 118, pp. 34–39.

• Newton, RR (1976). Ancient Planetary Observations and the Validity of Ephemeris Time . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1977). The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1979). The Moon's Acceleration and Its Physical Origins. Volume I. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1979). Fractions of degrees in an ancient star catalog . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V. 20, # 4, pp. 383–394.

• Newton, RR (1980). Orientation of the Earth's axis 2 millennia ago . Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., V. 186, # 1, pp. 231–231.

• Newton, RR (1980). The sources of Eratosthenes measurement of the Earth . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V.21, # 4, pp. 379–387.

• Newton, RR (1980). Coments on was Ptolemy a fraud . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V.21, # 4, pp. 388-399.

• Newton, RR (1982). An analysis of the solar observations of the Regiomontanus and Walther . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V. 23, # 1, pp. 67–93.

• Newton, RR (1983). The origin of Ptolemy's astronomical parameters . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1983). The authenticity of Ptolemy star data .2 . Quart. JR Astron. Soc., V.24, # 1, pp. 27–35.

• Newton, RR (1984). The Moon's Acceleration and Its Physical Origins. Volume 2: As Deduced from General Lunar Observation . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1985). The Origins of Ptolemy's Astronomical Tables (Technical Publication). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

• Newton, RR (1985). The secular acceleration of the Earth's spin. Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest v.6, # 2, pp. 120-129; Geophys. JR Astron. Soc., V. 80, # 2, pp. 313-328

• Rosser D., Newton R., Gross G. The mathematical theory of the flight of unguided missiles // Ed. prof. A. A. Kosmodemyanskogo. Translation from English A.N. Rubashova. - M .: Publishing house of foreign literature, 1950.
• Newton R. R. Crime of Claudius Ptolemy. - M .: Science, 1985 .

• Evans, J. (May 1993). Essay Review: The Origins of Ptolemy's Astronomical Tables, by Robert R. Newton : p. 145.
• Newton, Robert R. "The Scholarly Integrity of Book Reviews" (PDF). DIO 1.1: pp. 30–48.
• Newton, Robert R. (1974). "Two Uses of Ancient Astronomy . " Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Land. A. 276: 99-110. doi: 10.1098 / rsta.1974.0012.
• Hugh Thurston's 1998 condensation of R. Newton's 1977 Crime of Claudius Ptolemy (PDF). DIO 8.1 pp. 3–17.
• Newton, Robert R. The Secular Acceleration of the Earth’s Spin, see “The author”
• Jonsson CO Professor Robert R. Newton and "The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy"