This was regarded as a great scientific triumph. Our
belief in the universality of the law of gravitation would, in fact,
have been seriously challenged unless some explanation of the lunar
acceleration had been forthcoming. For about fifty years no one
questioned the truth of Laplace's investigation. When a
mathematician of his eminence had rendered an explanation of the
remarkable facts of observation which seemed so complete, it is not
surprising that there should have been but little temptation to doubt
it. On undertaking a new calculation of the same question, Professor
Adams found that Laplace had not pursued this approximation
sufficiently far, and that consequently there was a considerable
error in the result of his analysis. Adams, it must be observed, did
not impugn the value of the lunar acceleration which Halley had
deduced from the observations, but what he did show was, that the
calculation by which Laplace thought he had provided an explanation
of this acceleration was erroneous. Adams, in fact, proved that the
planetary influence which Laplace had detected only possessed about
half the efficiency which the great French mathematician had
attributed to it. There were not wanting illustrious mathematicians
who came forward to defend the calculations of Laplace.
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