John Couch Adams

John Couch Adams (/kuːtʃ/ KOOTCH; 5 June 1819 –

21 January 1892) was a British mathematician and John Couch Adams
FRS FRSE FRAS
astronomer. He was born in Laneast, near Launceston,
Cornwall, and died in Cambridge.

His most famous achievement was predicting the

existence and position of Neptune, using only
mathematics. The calculations were made to explain
discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of
Kepler and Newton. At the same time, but unknown to
each other, the same calculations were made by Urbain
Le Verrier. Le Verrier would send his coordinates to
Berlin Observatory astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle,
who confirmed the existence of the planet on 23
September 1846, finding it within 1° of Le Verrier's
predicted location. (There was, and to some extent still
is, some controversy over the apportionment of credit
for the discovery; see Discovery of Neptune.) Later,
Adams c. 1870
Adams explained the origin of meteor showers, which
holds to the present day.[2] Born 5 June 1819[1]
Laneast, Cornwall, England
Adams was Lowndean Professor in the University of Died 21 January 1892 (aged 72)[1]
Cambridge from 1859 until his death. He won the Gold Cambridge Observatory,
Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866. In Cambridgeshire, England
1884, he attended the International Meridian
Known for Discovery of Neptune
Conference as a delegate for Britain.
Linear multistep methods
A crater on the Moon is jointly named after him, Tidal acceleration
Walter Sydney Adams and Charles Hitchcock Adams.
Awards Smith's Prize (1843)
Neptune's outermost known ring and the asteroid 1996
Adams are also named after him. The Adams Prize, Copley Medal (1848)
presented by the University of Cambridge, Gold Medal of the Royal
commemorates his prediction of the position of Astronomical Society (1866)
Neptune. His personal library is held at Cambridge Scientific career
University Library.
Fields Mathematics
Astronomy
Early life Institutions University of St. Andrews
University of Cambridge
Adams was born at Lidcot, a farm at Laneast,[1] near Academic John Hymers
Launceston, Cornwall, the eldest of seven children. His advisors
parents were Thomas Adams (1788–1859), a poor
tenant farmer, and his wife, Tabitha Knill Grylls (1796–1866). The
family were devout Wesleyans who enjoyed music and among
John's brothers, Thomas became a missionary, George a farmer,
and William Grylls Adams, professor of natural philosophy and
astronomy at King's College London. Tabitha was a farmer's
daughter but had received a rudimentary education from John
Couch, her uncle, whose small library she had inherited. John was
intrigued by the astronomy books from an early age.[3]

John attended the Laneast village school where he acquired some

Greek and algebra. From there, he went, at the age of twelve, to
Devonport, where his mother's cousin, the Rev. John Couch
Grylls, kept a private school.[1] There he learned classics but was
largely self-taught in mathematics, studying in the Library of
Devonport Mechanics' Institute and reading Rees's Cyclopædia
and Samuel Vince's Fluxions. He observed Halley's comet in 1835
from Landulph and the following year started to make his own
astronomical calculations, predictions and observations, engaging
in private tutoring to finance his activities.[3] John Couch Adams

In 1836, his mother inherited a small estate at Badharlick and his

promise as a mathematician induced his parents to send him to the University of Cambridge.[3] In
October 1839 he entered as a sizar at St John's College, graduating B.A. in 1843 as senior wrangler and
first Smith's prizewinner of his year.[1][4]

Discovery of Neptune
In 1821, Alexis Bouvard had published astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus, making predictions of
future positions based on Newton's laws of motion and gravitation.[5] Subsequent observations revealed
substantial deviations from the tables, leading Bouvard to hypothesise some perturbing body.[6] Adams
learnt of the irregularities while still an undergraduate and became convinced of the "perturbation" theory.
Adams believed, in the face of anything that had been attempted before, that he could use the observed
data on Uranus, and utilising nothing more than Newton's law of gravitation, deduce the mass, position
and orbit of the perturbing body. On 3 July 1841, he noted his intention to work on the problem.[3]

After his final examinations in 1843, Adams was elected fellow of his college and spent the summer
vacation in Cornwall calculating the first of six iterations. While he worked on the problem back in
Cambridge, he tutored undergraduates, sending money home to educate his brothers, and even taught his
bed maker to read.[3]

Apparently, Adams communicated his work to James Challis, director of the Cambridge Observatory, in
mid-September 1845, but there is some controversy as to how. On 21 October 1845, Adams, returning
from a Cornwall vacation, without appointment, twice called on Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy
 in Greenwich. Failing to find him at home, Adams reputedly
left a manuscript of his solution, again without the detailed
calculations. Airy responded with a letter to Adams asking
for some clarification.[7] It appears that Adams did not
regard the question as "trivial", as is often alleged, but he
failed to complete a response. Various theories have been
discussed as to Adams's failure to reply, such as his general
nervousness, procrastination and disorganisation.[7]

Meanwhile, Urbain Le Verrier, on 10 November 1845,

presented to the Académie des sciences in Paris a memoir on
Uranus, showing that the preexisting theory failed to
account for its motion.[1] On reading Le Verrier's memoir,
Neptune as seen by Voyager 2 in 1989 Airy was struck by the coincidence and initiated a desperate
race for English priority in discovery of the planet.[8] The
search was begun by a laborious method on 29 July.[3] Only
after the discovery of Neptune on 23 September 1846 had been announced in Paris did it become
apparent that Neptune had been observed on 8 and 12 August but because Challis lacked an up-to-date
star-map it was not recognized as a planet.[1]

A keen controversy arose in France and England as to the merits of the two astronomers. As the facts
became known, there was wide recognition that the two astronomers had independently solved the
problem of Uranus, and each was ascribed equal importance.[1][3] However, there have been subsequent
assertions that "The Brits Stole Neptune" and that Adams's British contemporaries retrospectively
ascribed him more credit than he was due.[7] But it is also notable (and not included in some of the
foregoing discussion references) that Adams himself publicly acknowledged Le Verrier's priority and
credit (not forgetting to mention the role of Galle) in the paper that he gave 'On the Perturbations of
Uranus' to the Royal Astronomical Society in November 1846:[9]

I mention these dates merely to show that my results were arrived at independently, and
previously to the publication of those of M. Le Verrier, and not with the intention of interfering
with his just claims to the honours of the discovery; for there is no doubt that his researches
were first published to the world, and led to the actual discovery of the planet by Dr. Galle, so
that the facts stated above cannot detract, in the slightest degree, from the credit due to M. Le
Verrier.

Adams held no bitterness towards Challis or Airy[3] and acknowledged his own failure to convince the
astronomical world:[7]

I could not expect however that practical astronomers, who were already fully occupied with
important labours, would feel as much confidence in the results of my investigations, as I
myself did.

Work style
His lay fellowship at St John's College came to an end in 1852, and the existing statutes did not permit his
re-election. However, Pembroke College, which possessed greater freedom, elected him in the following
year to a lay fellowship which he held for the rest of his life. Despite the fame of his work on Neptune,
Adams also did much important work on gravitational astronomy and terrestrial magnetism.[1] He was
particularly adept at fine numerical calculations, often making substantial revisions to the contributions of
his predecessors. However, he was "extraordinarily uncompetitive, reluctant to publish imperfect work to
stimulate debate or claim priority, averse to correspondence about it, and forgetful in practical matters".[3]
It has been suggested that these are symptoms of Asperger syndrome which would also be consistent with
the "repetitive behaviours and restricted interests" necessary to perform the Neptune calculations, in
addition to his difficulties in personal interaction with Challis and Airy.[10]

In 1852, he published new and accurate tables of the Moon's parallax, which superseded Johann Karl
Burckhardt's, and supplied corrections to the theories of Marie-Charles Damoiseau, Giovanni Antonio
Amedeo Plana, and Philippe Gustave Doulcet.[1]

He had hoped that this work would leverage him into the vacant post as superintendent of HM Nautical
Almanac Office but John Russell Hind was preferred, Adams lacking the necessary ability as an organiser
and administrator.[3]

Lunar theory – Secular acceleration of the Moon

Since ancient times, the Moon's mean rate of motion relative to the stars had been treated as being
constant, but in 1695, Edmond Halley had suggested that this mean rate was gradually increasing.[11]
Later, during the eighteenth century, Richard Dunthorne estimated the rate as +10" (arcseconds/century2)
in terms of the resulting difference in lunar longitude,[12] an effect that became known as the secular
acceleration of the Moon. Pierre-Simon Laplace had given an explanation in 1787 in terms of changes in
the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. He considered only the radial gravitational force on the Moon from
the Sun and Earth but obtained close agreement with the historical record of observations.[13]

In 1820, at the insistence of the Académie des sciences, Damoiseau, Plana and Francesco Carlini revisited
Laplace's work, investigating quadratic and higher-order perturbing terms, and obtained similar results,
again addressing only a radial, and neglecting tangential, gravitational force on the Moon. Hansen
obtained similar results in 1842 and 1847.[14]

In 1853, Adams published a paper[15] showing that, while tangential terms vanish in the first-order theory
of Laplace, they become substantial when quadratic terms are admitted. Small terms integrated in time
come to have large effects and Adams concluded that Plana had overestimated the secular acceleration by
approximately 1.66" per century.[14]

At first, Le Verrier rejected Adams's results.[16] In 1856, Plana admitted Adams's conclusions, claiming to
have revised his own analysis and arrived at the same results. However, he soon recanted, publishing a
third result different both from Adams's and Plana's own earlier work. Delaunay in 1859 calculated the
fourth-order term and duplicated Adams's result leading Adams to publish his own calculations for the
fifth, sixth and seventh-order terms. Adams now calculated that only 5.7" of the observed 11" was
accounted for by gravitational effects.[14] Later that year, Philippe Gustave Doulcet, Comte de
Pontécoulant published a claim that the tangential force could have no effect though Peter Andreas
Hansen, who seems to have cast himself in the role of arbitrator, declared that the burden of proof rested
on Pontécoulant, while lamenting the need to discover a further effect to account for the balance. Much of
the controversy centred around the convergence of the power series expansion used and, in 1860, Adams
duplicated his results without using a power series. Sir John Lubbock also duplicated Adams's results and
Plana finally concurred. Adams's view was ultimately accepted and further developed, winning him the
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866.[1][14][16] The unexplained drift is now known to
be due to tidal acceleration.[3]

In 1858 Adams became professor of mathematics at the University of St Andrews, but lectured only for a
session, before returning to Cambridge for the Lowndean professorship of astronomy and geometry. Two
years later he succeeded Challis as director of the Cambridge Observatory, a post Adams held until his
death.[1]

Leonids
The great meteor shower of November 1866 turned his attention to the
Leonids, whose probable path and period had already been discussed and
predicted by Hubert Anson Newton in 1864.[1] Newton had asserted that
the longitude of the ascending node, that marked where the shower would
occur, was increasing and the problem of explaining this variation
attracted some of Europe's leading astronomers.[3]

Using a powerful and elaborate analysis, Adams ascertained that this

cluster of meteors, which belongs to the Solar System, traverses an
elongated ellipse in 33.25 years, and is subject to definite perturbations
from the larger planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. These results were
published in 1867.[1]

Some experts consider this Adams's most substantial achievement.[17] His

The great Leonid shower
storm of 1833
"definitive orbit" for the Leonids coincided with that of the comet
55P/Tempel-Tuttle and thereby suggested the, later widely accepted, close
relationship between comets and meteors.[3]

Later career
Ten years later, George William Hill described a novel and elegant method for attacking the problem of
lunar motion. Adams briefly announced his own unpublished work in the same field, which, following a
parallel course had confirmed and supplemented Hill's.[1]

Over a period of forty years, he periodically addressed the determination of the constants in Carl
Friedrich Gauss's theory of terrestrial magnetism. Again, the calculations involved great labour, and were
not published during his lifetime. They were edited by his brother, William Grylls Adams, and appear in
the second volume of the collected Scientific Papers. Numerical computation of this kind might almost be
described as his pastime.[1] He calculated the Euler–Mascheroni constant, perhaps somewhat
eccentrically, to 236 decimal places[3] and evaluated the Bernoulli numbers up to the 62nd.[1]
Adams had boundless admiration for Newton and his writings and
many of his papers bear the cast of Newton's thought.[1] In 1872,
Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth, donated his private
collection of Newton's papers to Cambridge University. Adams
and G. G. Stokes took on the task of arranging the material,
publishing a catalogue in 1888.[18][19]

The post of Astronomer Royal was offered him in 1881, but he

preferred to pursue his teaching and research in Cambridge. He
was British delegate to the International Meridian Conference at
Washington in 1884, when he also attended the meetings of the
British Association at Montreal and of the American Association
at Philadelphia.[1]

Honours Portrait of John Couch Adams by

Hubert von Herkomer, c. 1888

1847 He is reputed to have been offered a knighthood

on Queen Victoria's 1847 Cambridge visit but to have
declined, either out of modesty, or fear of the financial consequences of such social
distinction;[3]
1847 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;[20]
1848 Copley medal of the Royal Society;[1]
1848 Adams Prize, founded by the members of St John's College, to be given biennially for
the best treatise on a mathematical subject;[1]
1849 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London and Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh;
1851 and 1874 President of the Royal Astronomical Society (1851–1853 and 1874–1876).[1]

Family and death

After a long illness, Adams died at Cambridge on 21 January 1892 and was buried near his home in St
Giles Cemetery, now the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.[21] In 1863 he had
married Miss Eliza Bruce (1827–1919), of Dublin, who survived him, and is buried with him.[1] His
wealth at death was £32,434 (£2.6 million at 2003 prices).[3][22]

Memorials
Memorial in Westminster Abbey with a portrait medallion, by Albert Bruce-Joy;[23]
A bust, by Joy in the hall of St John's College, Cambridge;[1]
Another youthful bust belongs to the Royal Astronomical Society;[1]
Portraits by:
Hubert von Herkomer in Pembroke College;[1]
Paul Raphael Montord in the combination room of St John's;[1]
 A memorial tablet, with an inscription by Archbishop Benson, in Truro Cathedral;[1]
Passmore Edwards erected a public institute in his honour at Launceston, near his
birthplace;[1]
Adams Nunatak, a nunatak on Neptune Glacier in Alexander Island in Antarctica, is named
after him.
Statue by Joy in Albert Square, Manchester.

Obituaries
The Times, 22 January 1892, p. 6 col. d (link on this
page ([Link]
athematicians/[Link]))
[Anon.] (1892). "John Couch Adams" ([Link]
[Link]//full/seri/AJ.../0011//[Link]).
Astronomical Journal. 11: 112.
Bibcode:1892AJ.....11..112. ([Link]
du/abs/1892AJ.....11..112.). doi:10.1086/101653 (https://
[Link]/10.1086%2F101653).
J.W.L. Glaisher (1892). "Obituary: John Couch Adams"
([Link]
[Link]). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. 53: 184–209. Bibcode:1893MNRAS..53..184. (h
ttps://[Link]/abs/1893MNRAS..53..184.).
doi:10.1093/mnras/53.4.184 ([Link]
mnras%2F53.4.184).
J.W.L. Glaisher (1892). "John Couch Adams" ([Link]
[Link]//full/seri/Obs../0015//[Link]).
The Observatory. 15: 173. Bibcode:1892Obs....15..173G Memorial to John Couch Adams in
([Link] St Sidwell Church, Laneast,
G). Cornwall.
[Anon.] (1891–92) Journal of the British Astronomical
Association 2: 196–197

About Adams and the discovery of Neptune

Airy, G. B. (1847). "Account of some circumstances historically connected with the discovery
of the planet exterior to Uranus". Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 16: 385–414.
Bibcode:1847MmRAS..16..385A ([Link]
A).
Airy, W., ed. (1896). The Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy ([Link]
xt/10655). Cambridge University Press. from Project Gutenberg
Baum, R.; Sheehan, W. (1997). In Search of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost in Newton's
Clockwork Universe ([Link] Plenum.
Chapman, A. (1988). "Private research and public duty: George Biddell Airy and the search
for Neptune". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 19 (2): 121–139.
Bibcode:1988JHA....19..121C ([Link]
doi:10.1177/002182868801900204 ([Link]
S2CID 126074998 ([Link]
Doggett, L.E. (1997) "Celestial mechanics", in Lankford, J., ed. (1997). History of
Astronomy, an Encyclopedia ([Link] Taylor &
 Francis. pp. 131–140 ([Link]
ISBN 9780815303220.
Dreyer, J.L.E.; Turner, H.H., eds. (1987) [1923]. History of the Royal Astronomical Society
[1]: 1820–1920. pp. 161–162.
Grosser, M. (1962). The Discovery of Neptune. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-
21225-8.
"Adams, John Couch". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. 1970. pp. 53–54. ISBN 0-684-10114-9.
Harrison, H.M. (1994). Voyager in Time and Space: The Life of John Couch Adams,
Cambridge Astronomer. Lewes: Book Guild, ISBN 0-86332-918-7
Hughes, D.W. (1996). "J.C. Adams, Cambridge and Neptune". Notes and Records of the
Royal Society. 50 (2): 245–248. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1996.0027 ([Link]
r.1996.0027). S2CID 146396595 ([Link]
J.W.L.G. [J.W.L. Glaisher] (1882). "James Challis" ([Link]
3.4.160). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 43 (4): 160–179.
Bibcode:1883MNRAS..43..160. ([Link]
doi:10.1093/mnras/43.4.160 ([Link]
Kollerstrom, Nick (2001). "Neptune's Discovery. The British Case for Co-Prediction" (https://
[Link]/web/20051111190351/[Link]
University College London. Archived from the original ([Link]
[Link]) on 11 November 2005. Retrieved 19 March 2007.
Moore, P. (1996). The Planet Neptune: An Historical Survey before Voyager. Praxis.
Sampson, R.A. (1904). "A description of Adams's manuscripts on the perturbations of
Uranus". Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 54: 143–161.
Bibcode:1904MmRAS..54..143S ([Link]
S).
"John Couch Adams and the discovery of Neptune". Occasional Notes of the Royal
Astronomical Society. 2: 33–88. 1947.
Smith, R.W. (1989). "The Cambridge network in action: the discovery of Neptune". Isis. 80
(303): 395–422. doi:10.1086/355082 ([Link]
S2CID 144191212 ([Link]
Standage, T. (2000). The Neptune File. Penguin Press.
Lyttleton, Raymond Arthur, (1968) Mysteries of the Solar System, Clarendon, Oxford, UK
(1968), Chapter 7: The discovery of Neptune[24]

By Adams
Adams, J.C., ed. W.G. Adams & R. A. Sampson (1896–1900) The Scientific Papers of John
Couch Adams, 2 vols, London: Cambridge University Press, with a memoir by J.W.L.
Glaisher:

Vol. 1 (1896) Previously published writings;[25]

Vol. 2 (1900) Manuscripts including the substance of his lectures on the Lunar
Theory.[26]
Adams, J.C., ed. R.A. Sampson (1900) Lectures on the Lunar Theory ([Link]
tails/lecturesonlunar01sampgoog), London: Cambridge University Press[26]
A collection, virtually complete, of Adams's papers regarding the discovery of Neptune was
presented by Mrs Adams to the library of St John's College, see: Sampson (1904), and also:
"The collected papers of Prof. Adams", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 7
(1896–97)
 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 53 184;
Observatory, 15 174;
Nature, 34 565; 45 301;
Astronomical Journal, No. 254;
R. Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, p. 168; and
Edinburgh Review, No. 381, p. 72.
The papers were ultimately lodged with the Royal Greenwich Observatory and evacuated to
Herstmonceux Castle during World War II. After the war, they were stolen by Olin J. Eggen
and only recovered in 1998, hampering much historical research in the subject.[27]

See also
Cornwall portal

Intrigue at RAS and Cambridge Observatory from the biography of Richard Christopher
Carrington

References
1. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Adams, John Couch". Encyclopædia
Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 177–178.
2. "The cosmic redemption of astronomer John Couch Adams" ([Link]
-a-bang/cosmic-redemption-astronomer-john-couch-adams/). 17 July 2024.
3. Hutchins, Roger (2004). "Adams, John Couch (1819–1892)". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/123 ([Link]
0.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F123). (Subscription or UK public library membership ([Link]
[Link]/help/subscribe#public) required.)
4. "Adams, John Couch (ADMS839JC)" ([Link]
&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=ADMS839JC&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxc
ount=50). A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
5. Bouvard, A. (1821) Tables astronomiques publiées par le Bureau des Longitudes de France
([Link] Paris, FR:
Bachelier
6. [Anon.] (2001) "Bouvard, Alexis", Encyclopædia Britannica, Deluxe CDROM edition
7. Sheehan, W.; Kollerstrom, Nicholas; Waff, Craig B. (December 2004). "The Case of the
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doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1204-92 ([Link]
2). PMID 15597985 ([Link]
8. Smart, W. M. (1946). "John Couch Adams and the discovery of Neptune". Nature. 158
(4019): 829–830. Bibcode:1946Natur.158..648S ([Link]
ur.158..648S). doi:10.1038/158648a0 ([Link]
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9. Adams, J.C. (1846). "On the Perturbations of Uranus" ([Link]
stovari00grearich). Appendices to various nautical almanacs between the years 1834 and
1854 (reprints published 1851) (note that this is a 50Mb download of the pdf scan of the
nineteenth-century printed book). UK Nautical Almanac Office. p. 265. Retrieved 23 January
2008.
10. Sheehan, W.; Thurber, S. (2007). "John Couch Adams's Asperger syndrome and the British
non-discovery of Neptune". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 61 (3): 285–299.
doi:10.1098/rsnr.2007.0187 ([Link] S2CID 146702903
([Link]
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remarks on the Inscriptions found there" ([Link]
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Frstl.1695.0023). JSTOR 102291 ([Link] S2CID 186214936
([Link] Also Philos. Trans. R. Soc.
(Abridgements) vol. 4 (1694–1702) pp. 60 at 65: Halley concluded his 1695 article on
middle-eastern antiquities by writing: "And if any curious traveller ... would please to
observe, with due care, the phases of the moon's eclipses at Bagdat, Aleppo and
Alexandria, thereby to determine their longitudes, they could not do the science of
astronomy a greater service: for in and near these places were made all the observations by
which the mean motions of the sun and moon are limited: and I could then pronounce in
what proportion the moon's motion does accelerate; which that it does, I think I can
demonstrate." But it was left to Richard Dunthorne actually to make the first quantitative
assessment of the Moon's apparent acceleration.
12. Dunthorne, Richard (1749). "A Letter from the Rev. Mr. Richard Dunthorne to the Reverend
Mr. Richard Mason F.R.S. and Keeper of the Wood-Wardian Museum at Cambridge,
concerning the Acceleration of the Moon" ([Link]
Philosophical Transactions. 46 (492): 162–172. Bibcode:1749RSPT...46..162D ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1749RSPT...46..162D). doi:10.1098/rstl.1749.0031 ([Link]
1098%2Frstl.1749.0031). S2CID 186210495 ([Link]
210495).
– also given in Philosophical Transactions (abridgements) (1809), vol. 9 (for 1744–49), pp.
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13. Roy, A.E. (2005). Orbital Motion ([Link]
A313). London: CRC Press. p. 313. ISBN 0-7503-1015-4.
14. de la Rue, W. (1866). "Address on award of RAS gold medal for work on secular
acceleration of the Moon" ([Link]
tml). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 26: 157.
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15. Adams, J.C. (1853). "On the secular variation of the Moon's mean motion". Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 143: 397–406. doi:10.1098/rstl.1853.0017 (htt
ps://[Link]/10.1098%2Frstl.1853.0017). S2CID 186213591 ([Link]
CorpusID:186213591).
16. Kushner, D. (1989). "The controversy surrounding the secular acceleration of the moon's
mean motion" ([Link] Archive for History of
Exact Sciences. 39 (4): 291–316. Bibcode:1989AHES...39..291K ([Link]
edu/abs/1989AHES...39..291K). doi:10.1007/BF00348444 ([Link]
348444). JSTOR 41133856 ([Link] S2CID 116653391 (htt
ps://[Link]/CorpusID:116653391).
17. "The cosmic redemption of astronomer John Couch Adams" ([Link]
-a-bang/cosmic-redemption-astronomer-john-couch-adams/). 17 July 2024.
18. "Introduction to the Newton Manuscripts Catalogue" ([Link]
k/[Link]?id=55). The Newton Project. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
19. A Catalogue of the Portsmouth Collection of Books and Papers written by or belonging to Sir
Isaac Newton, the Scientific Part of which has been Presented by the Earl of Portsmouth to
the University of Cambridge, drawn up by the Syndicate appointed 6 November 1982,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1888
20. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" ([Link]
mbers/[Link]) (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 1 April
2011.
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ISBN 0-9563917-1-0.
22. O'Donoghue, J. (March 2004). "Consumer Price Inflation since 1750" ([Link]
[Link]/cci/[Link]?ID=726). Economic Trends. 604: 38–46.
23. 'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p. 56: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966
24. Lyttleton, Raymond Arthur (1968). Mysteries of the Solar System. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
pp. 215–250.
25. Brown, Ernest W. (1897). "Review: The Scientific Papers of John Couch Adams, Vol. I, ed.
by W.G. Adams, with a memoir by J.W.L. Glaisher" ([Link]
1897-00404-9). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 3 (6): 225–227. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1897-
00404-9 ([Link]
26. Brown, Ernest W. (1901). "The Scientific Papers of John Couch Adams, Vol. II, Part 1 ed. by
R.A. Sampson, Part 2 ed. by W.G. Adams" ([Link]
798-7). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 7 (6): 272–278. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1901-00798-7 (http
s://[Link]/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1901-00798-7).
27. Kollerstrom, N. (2001). "Eggen takes the papers" ([Link]
748/[Link] The British Case for Co-prediction.
University College London. Archived from the original ([Link]
[Link]) on 6 February 2005. Retrieved 23 August 2007.

External links
Works by or about John Couch Adams at Wikisource
Biography on the St Andrews database ([Link]
thematicians/[Link])
Weisstein, Eric Wolfgang (ed.). "Adams, John Couch (1819–1892)" ([Link]
[Link]/biography/[Link]). ScienceWorld.
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "John Couch Adams" ([Link]
[Link]/Biographies/[Link]), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University
of St Andrews
"Adams, John Couch" ([Link]
3%A6dia/Adams,_John_Couch). New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Adams, John Couch" ([Link]
0)/Adams,_John_Couch). Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
Davor Krajnovic, John Couch Adams: mathematical astronomer, college friend of George
Gabriel Stokes and promotor of women in astronomy ([Link]

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