Page 289 - 89 history of astronomy_opt

been continually diminishing for thousands
of years. Thus the solar influence has been
diminishing, and the moon’s mean motion
increased. Laplace computed the amount
at 10” in one century, agreeing with ob-
servation. (Later on Adams showed that
Laplace’s calculation was wrong, and that
the value he found was too large; so, part of
the acceleration is now attributed by some
289