Ring Model Applied to the Precession of Mercury

The orbit of Mercury precesses at a total rate of 5600 arc seconds; astronomers believe that 5025 arc seconds can be attributed to inertial effects. The gravitational forces from the other 7 planets produce a rate of 535'', leaving a 43 arc seconds unaccounted. We will present a solar system model that replaces each of the outer 7 planets by rings and introduce Ritz's force law to describe the force that the sun exerts on Mercury, resulting in a unified Newtonian calculation of the remaining 578''.