Editing Tom Van Flandern (section)

== Mainstream scientific work ==

During the mid-1970s, Van Flandern believed that lunar observations gave evidence of variation in Newton's [[gravitational constant]] (''G''), consistent with a speculative idea that had been put forward by [[Paul Dirac]]. In 1974, his essay "A Determination of the Rate of Change of G" was awarded second place by the [[Gravity Research Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_year.html#74 | title = Award winners | publisher = [[Gravity Research Foundation]] | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929022056/http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_year.html#74 | archivedate = 2007-09-29 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/pdf/awarded/1974/vanflandern.pdf | title = A Determination of the Rate of Change of G | date = 1974 | author = Tom Van Flandern | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20111001230512/http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/pdf/awarded/1974/vanflandern.pdf | archivedate = 2011-10-01 }}</ref>
However, in later years, with new data available, Van Flandern himself admitted his findings were flawed and contradicted by more accurate findings based on radio measurements with the [[Viking lander]]s.<ref>{{Cite book| page = 175– | author = Clifford Will | author-link = Clifford Martin Will | title = Was Einstein Right?: putting general relativity to the test | publisher = [[Basic Books]] | edition = 2nd | date = 1993 | isbn = 0-465-09086-9}}</ref><ref>Dark Matter, Missing Planets, New Comets, Van Flandern 1993.</ref>

Van Flandern and Henry Fliegel developed a compact algorithm to calculate a [[Julian date]] from a Gregorian date that would fit on a single [[Punched card|IBM card]]. They described this in a letter to the editor of a computing magazine in 1968.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fliegel|first=Henry|title=Letters to the editor: a machine algorithm for processing calendar dates|journal=Communications of the ACM|volume=11|issue=10|publisher=ACM|author2=Thomas C. Van Flanderen |page=657|doi=10.1145/364096.364097|date=October 1968|s2cid=27358750|doi-access=free}}</ref> This was available for use in business applications.<ref name="aas" />

With Kenneth Pulkkinen, he published "Low precision formulae for planetary positions" in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement in 1979.<ref>{{Cite journal| title = Low-Precision Formulae for Planetary Positions | author = Van Flandern, T. C. | author2 = Pulkkinen, K. F. | name-list-style = amp | journal = Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series | date = 1979 | volume = 41 | issue = 3 | pages = 391–411 | doi=10.1086/190623|bibcode = 1979ApJS...41..391V }}</ref> The paper set a record for the number of reprints requested from that journal.<ref name="aas" />

Following claims by David Dunham in 1978 to have detected [[Minor-planet moon|satellites for some asteroids]] (notably [[532 Herculina]]) by examining the light patterns during stellar occultations,<ref name="Dunham-1978" /> Van Flandern and others began to report similar observations.<ref>Van Flandern, T. C., Tedesco, E. F. & Binzel, R. P. in Asteroids (ed. Gehrels, T.) 443–465 (Univ. Ariz. Press, Tucson, 1979).</ref> His non-mainstream 1978 prediction that some asteroids have natural satellites, which was almost universally rejected at the time, was later proven correct when the ''[[Galileo (spacecraft)|Galileo]]'' spacecraft photographed Dactyl, a satellite of [[243 Ida]], during its flyby in 1993.<ref name="aas" />