Classical theory of advance of perihelion of Mercury with velocity dependent inertial and gravitational masses

It is shown that Mercury's motion of the perihelion around the Sun, which is believed to be explicable quantitatively only by general relativity, can be fully understood within the frame of the dynamics of special relativity. It is only necessary to take into consideration the relativistic dependence of the planet's inertial and gravitational masses on its velocity (relative to the Sun) in the conservation equations for energy, and linear and angular momenta in the gravitational field. The physical problem is reduced to a singular, nonlinear differential equation, which is solved numerically for the planet Mercury. The advance of the perihelion of Mercury is shown to be δφ= 42.087″ for a period of 100 years, which is in agreement with the astronomical observations and the result (by analytical approximations) of general relativity.