SECTION V.…

SECTION V.

Of the density and compression of fluids; and of hydrostatics.

THE DEFINITION OF A FLUID.

A fluid is any body whose parts yield to any force impressed on it, by yielding, are easily moved among themselves.

PROPOSITION XIX. THEOREM XIV.

All the parts of a homogeneous and unmoved fluid included in any unmoved vessel, and compressed on every side (setting aside the consideration of condensation, gravity, and all centripetal forces), will be equally pressed on every side, and remain in their places without any motion arising from that pressure.

CASE 1. Let a fluid be included in the spherical vessel ABC, and uniformly compressed on every side: I say, that no part of it will be moved by that pressure. For if any part, as D, be moved, all such parts at the same distance from the centre on every side must necessarily be moved at the same time by a like motion; because the pressure of them all is similar and equal; and all other motion is excluded that does not arise from that pressure. But if these parts come all of them nearer to the centre, the fluid must be condensed towards the centre, contrary to the supposition. If they recede from it, the fluid must be condensed towards the circumference; which is also contrary to the supposition. Neither can they move in any one direction retaining their distance from the centre, because for the same reason, they may move in a contrary direction; but the same part cannot be moved contrary ways at the same time. Therefore no part of the fluid will be moved from its place. Q.E.D.

CASE 2. I say now, that all the spherical parts of this fluid are equally pressed on every side. For let EF be a spherical part of the fluid; if this be not pressed equally on every side, augment the lesser pressure till it be pressed equally on every side; and its parts (by Case 1) will remain in their places. But before the increase of the pressure, they would remain in their places (by Case 1); and by the addition of a new pressure they will be moved, by the definition of a fluid, from those places. Now these two conclusions contradict each other. Therefore it was false to say that the sphere EF was not pressed equally on every side. Q.E.D.

CASE 3. I say besides, that different spherical parts have equal pressures. For the contiguous spherical parts press each other mutually and equally in the point of contact (by Law III). But (by Case 2) they are pressed on every side with the same force. Therefore any two spherical parts not[Pg 294] contiguous, since an intermediate spherical part can touch both, will be pressed with the same force. Q.E.D.

CASE 4. I say now, that all the parts of the fluid are every where pressed equally. For any two parts may be touched by spherical parts in any points whatever; and there they will equally press those spherical parts (by Case 3), and are reciprocally equally pressed by them (by Law III). Q.E.D.

CASE 5. Since, therefore, any part GHI of the fluid is inclosed by the rest of the fluid as in a vessel, and is equally pressed on every side; and also its parts equally press one another, and are at rest among themselves; it is manifest that all the parts of any fluid as GHI, which is pressed equally on every side, do press each other mutually and equally, and are at rest among themselves. Q.E.D.

CASE 6. Therefore if that fluid be included in a vessel of a yielding substance, or that is not rigid, and be not equally pressed on every side, the same will give way to a stronger pressure, by the Definition of fluidity.

CASE 7. And therefore, in an inflexible or rigid vessel, a fluid will not sustain a stronger pressure on one side than on the other, but will give way to it, and that in a moment of time; because the rigid side of the vessel does not follow the yielding liquor. But the fluid, by thus yielding, will press against the opposite side, and so the pressure will tend on every side to equality. And because the fluid, as soon as it endeavours to recede from the part that is most pressed, is withstood by the resistance of the vessel on the opposite side, the pressure will on every side be reduced to equality, in a moment of time, without any local motion: and from thence the parts of the fluid (by Case 5) will press each other mutually and equally, and be at rest among themselves. Q.E.D.

COR. Whence neither will a motion of the parts of the fluid among themselves be changed by a pressure communicated to the external superficies, except so far as either the figure of the superficies may be somewhere altered, or that all the parts of the fluid, by pressing one another more intensely or remissly, may slide with more or less difficulty among themselves.

PROPOSITION XX. THEOREM XV.

If all the parts of a spherical fluid, homogeneous at equal distances from the centre, lying on a spherical concentric bottom, gravitate towards the centre of the whole, the bottom will sustain the weight of a cylinder, whose base is equal to the superficies of the bottom, and whose altitude is the same with that of the incumbent fluid.

Let DHM be the superficies of the bottom, and AEI the upper superficies of the fluid. Let the fluid be distinguished into concentric orbs of equal thickness, by the innumerable spherical superficies BFK, CGL: and[Pg 295] conceive the force of gravity to act only in the upper superficies of every orb, and the actions to be equal on the equal parts of all the superficies. Therefore the upper superficies AE is pressed by the single force of its own gravity, by which all the parts of the upper orb, and the second superficies BFK, will (by Prop. XIX), according to its measure, be equally pressed. The second superficies BFK is pressed likewise by the force of its own gravity, which, added to the former force, makes the pressure double. The third superficies CGL is, according to its measure, acted on by this pressure and the force of its own gravity besides, which makes its pressure triple. And in like manner the fourth superficies receives a quadruple pressure, the fifth superficies a quintuple, and so on. Therefore the pressure acting on every superficies is not as the solid quantity of the incumbent fluid, but as the number of the orbs reaching to the upper surface of the fluid; and is equal to the gravity of the lowest orb multiplied by the number of orbs: that is, to the gravity of a solid whose ultimate ratio to the cylinder above-mentioned (when the number of the orbs is increased and their thickness diminished, ad infinitum, so that the action of gravity from the lowest superficies to the uppermost may become continued) is the ratio of equality. Therefore the lowest superficies sustains the weight of the cylinder above determined. Q.E.D. And by a like reasoning the Proposition will be evident, where the gravity of the fluid decreases in any assigned ratio of the distance from the centre, and also where the fluid is more rare above and denser below. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Therefore the bottom is not pressed by the whole weight of the incumbent fluid, but only sustains that part of it which is described in the Proposition; the rest of the weight being sustained archwise by the spherical figure of the fluid.

COR. 2. The quantity of the pressure is the same always at equal distances from the centre, whether the superficies pressed be parallel to the horizon, or perpendicular, or oblique; or whether the fluid, continued upwards from the compressed superficies, rises perpendicularly in a rectilinear direction, or creeps obliquely through crooked cavities and canals, whether those passages be regular or irregular, wide or narrow. That the pressure is not altered by any of these circumstances, may be collected by applying the demonstration of this Theorem to the several cases of fluids.

COR. 3. From the same demonstration it may also be collected (by Prop. XIX), that the parts of a heavy fluid acquire no motion among themselves by the pressure of the incumbent weight, except that motion which arises from condensation.

[Pg 296]

COR. 4. And therefore if another body of the same specific gravity, incapable of condensation, be immersed in this fluid, it will acquire no motion by the pressure of the incumbent weight: it will neither descend nor ascend, nor change its figure. If it be spherical, it will remain so, notwithstanding the pressure; if it be square, it will remain square; and that, whether it be soft or fluid; whether it swims freely in the fluid, or lies at the bottom. For any internal part of a fluid is in the same state with the submersed body; and the case of all submersed bodies that have the same magnitude, figure, and specific gravity, is alike. If a submersed body, retaining its weight, should dissolve and put on the form of a fluid, this body, if before it would have ascended, descended, or from any pressure assume a new figure, would now likewise ascend, descend, or put on a new figure; and that, because its gravity and the other causes of its motion remain. But (by Case 5, Prop. XIX) it would now be at rest, and retain its figure. Therefore also in the former case.

COR. 5. Therefore a body that is specifically heavier than a fluid contiguous to it will sink; and that which is specifically lighter will ascend, and attain so much motion and change of figure as that excess or defect of gravity is able to produce. For that excess or defect is the same thing as an impulse, by which a body, otherwise in equilibrio with the parts of the fluid, is acted on; and may be compared with the excess or defect of a weight in one of the scales of a balance.

COR. 6. Therefore bodies placed in fluids have a twofold gravity; the one true and absolute, the other apparent, vulgar, and comparative. Absolute gravity is the whole force with which the body tends downwards; relative and vulgar gravity is the excess of gravity with which the body tends downwards more than the ambient fluid. By the first kind of gravity the parts of all fluids and bodies gravitate in their proper places; and therefore their weights taken together compose the weight of the whole. For the whole taken together is heavy, as may be experienced in vessels full of liquor; and the weight of the whole is equal to the weights of all the parts, and is therefore composed of them. By the other kind of gravity bodies do not gravitate in their places; that is, compared with one another, they do not preponderate, but, hindering one another's endeavours to descend, remain in their proper places, as if they were not heavy. Those things which are in the air, and do not preponderate, are commonly looked on as not heavy. Those which do preponderate are commonly reckoned heavy, in as much as they are not sustained by the weight of the air. The common weights are nothing else but the excess of the true weights above the weight of the air. Hence also, vulgarly, those things are called light which are less heavy, and, by yielding to the preponderating air, mount upwards. But these are only comparatively light and not truly so, because they descend in vacuo. Thus, in water, bodies which, by their greater or[Pg 297] less gravity, descend or ascend, are comparatively and apparently heavy or light; and their comparative and apparent gravity or levity is the excess or defect by which their true gravity either exceeds the gravity of the water or is exceeded by it. But those things which neither by preponderating descend, nor, by yielding to the preponderating fluid, ascend, although by their true weight they do increase the weight of the whole, yet comparatively, and in the sense of the vulgar, they do not gravitate in the water. For these cases are alike demonstrated.

COR. 7. These things which have been demonstrated concerning gravity take place in any other centripetal forces.

COR. 8. Therefore if the medium in which any body moves be acted on either by its own gravity, or by any other centripetal force, and the body be urged more powerfully by the same force; the difference of the forces is that very motive force, which, in the foregoing Propositions, I have considered as a centripetal force. But if the body be more lightly urged by that force, the difference of the forces becomes a centrifugal force, and is to be considered as such.

COR. 9. But since fluids by pressing the included bodies do not change their external figures, it appears also (by Cor. Prop. XIX) that they will not change the situation of their internal parts in relation to one another; and therefore if animals were immersed therein, and that all sensation did arise from the motion of their parts, the fluid will neither hurt the immersed bodies, nor excite any sensation, unless so far as those bodies may be condensed by the compression. And the case is the same of any system of bodies encompassed with a compressing fluid. All the parts of the system will be agitated with the same motions as if they were placed in a vacuum, and would only retain their comparative gravity; unless so far as the fluid may somewhat resist their motions, or be requisite to conglutinate them by compression.

PROPOSITION XXI. THEOREM XVI.

Let the density of any fluid be proportional to the compression, and its parts be attracted downwards by a centripetal force reciprocally proportional to the distances from the centre: I say, that, if those distances be taken continually proportional, the densities of the fluid at the same distances will be also continually proportional.

Let ATV denote the spherical bottom of the fluid, S the centre, SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, SF, &c., distances continually proportional. Erect the perpendiculars AH, BI, CK, DL, EM, FN, &c., which shall be as the densities of the medium in the places A, B, C, D, E, F; and the specific gravities in those places will be as , , , &c., or, which is all one, as[Pg 298] , , , &c. Suppose, first, these gravities to be uniformly continued from A to B, from B to C, from C to D, &c., the decrements in the points B, C, D, &c., being taken by steps. And these gravities drawn into the altitudes AB, BC, CD, &c., will give the pressures AH, BI, CK, &c., by which the bottom ATV is acted on (by Theor. XV). Therefore the particle A sustains all the pressures AH, BI, CK, DL, &c., proceeding in infinitum; and the particle B sustains the pressures of all but the first AH; and the particle C all but the two first AH, BI; and so on: and therefore the density AH of the first particle A is to the density BI of the second particle B as the sum of all AH + BI + CK + DL, in infinitum, to the sum of all BI + CK + DL, &c. And BI the density of the second particle B is to CK the density of the third C, as the sum of all BI + CK + DL, &c., to the sum of all CK + DL, &c. Therefore these sums are proportional to their differences AH, BI, CK, &c., and therefore continually proportional (by Lem. 1 of this Book); and therefore the differences AH, BI, CK, &c., proportional to the sums, are also continually proportional. Wherefore since the densities in the places A, B, C, &c., are as AH, BI, CK, &c., they will also be continually proportional. Proceed intermissively, and, ex æquo, at the distances SA, SC, SE, continually proportional, the densities AH, CK, EM will be continually proportional. And by the same reasoning, at any distances SA, SD, SG, continually proportional, the densities AH, DL, GO, will be continually proportional. Let now the points A, B, C, D, E, &c., coincide, so that the progression of the specific gravities from the bottom A to the top of the fluid may be made continual; and at any distances SA, SD, SG, continually proportional, the densities AH, DL, GO, being all along continually proportional, will still remain continually proportional. Q.E.D.

COR. Hence if the density of the fluid in two places, as A and E, be given, its density in any other place Q may be collected. With the centre S, and the rectangular asymptotes SQ, SX, describe an hyperbola cutting the perpendiculars AH, EM, QT in a, e, and q, as also the perpendiculars HX, MY, TZ, let fall upon the asymptote SX, in h, m, and t. Make the area Y_mt_Z to the given area Y_mh_X as the given area E_eq_Q to the given area E_ea_A; and the line Z_t_ produced will cut off the line QT proportional to the density. For if the lines SA, SE, SQ are continually proportional, the areas E_eq_Q, E_ea_A will be equal, and thence[Pg 299] the areas Y_mt_Z, X_hm_Y, proportional to them, will be also equal; and the lines SX, SY, SZ, that is, AH, EM, QT continually proportional, as they ought to be. And if the lines SA, SE, SQ, obtain any other order in the series of continued proportionals, the lines AH, EM, QT, because of the proportional hyperbolic areas, will obtain the same order in another series of quantities continually proportional.

PROPOSITION XXII. THEOREM XVII.

Let the density of any fluid be proportional to the compression, and its parts be attracted downwards by a gravitation reciprocally proportional to the squares of the distances from the centre: I say, that if the distances be taken in harmonic progression, the densities of the fluid at those distances will be in a geometrical progression.

Let S denote the centre, and SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, the distances in geometrical progression. Erect the perpendiculars AH, BI, CK, &c., which shall be as the densities of the fluid in the places A, B, C, D, E, &c., and the specific gravities thereof in those places will be as , , , &c. Suppose these gravities to be uniformly continued, the first from A to B, the second from B to C, the third from C to D, &c. And these drawn into the altitudes AB, BC, CD, DE, &c., or, which is the same thing, into the distances SA, SB, SC, &c., proportional to those altitudes, will give , , , &c., the exponents of the pressures. Therefore since the densities are as the sums of those pressures, the differences AH - BI, BI - CK, &c., of the densities will be as the differences of those sums , , &c. With the centre S, and the asymptotes SA, S_x_, describe any hyperbola, cutting the perpendiculars AH, BI, CK, &c., in a, b, c, &c., and the perpendiculars H_t_, I_u_, K_w_, let fall upon the asymptote S_x_, in h, i, k; and the differences of the densities tu, uw, &c., will be as , , &c. And the rectangles tu × th, uw × ui, &c., or tp, uq, &c., as , , &c., that is, as A_a_, B_b_, &c. For, by the nature of the hyperbola, SA is to AH or S_t_ as th to A_a_, and therefore is equal to A_a_. And, by a like[Pg 300] reasoning, is equal to B_b_, &c. But A_a_, B_b_, C_c_, &c., are continually proportional, and therefore proportional to their differences A_a_ - B_b_, B_b_ - C_c_, &c., therefore the rectangles tp, uq, &c., are proportional to those differences; as also the sums of the rectangles tp + uq, or tp + uq + wr to the sums of the differences A_a_ - C_c_ or A_a_ - D_d_. Suppose several of these terms, and the sum of all the differences, as A_a_ - F_f_, will be proportional to the sum of all the rectangles, as zthn. Increase the number of terms, and diminish the distances of the points A, B, C, &c., in infinitum, and those rectangles will become equal to the hyperbolic area zthn, and therefore the difference A_a_ - F_f_ is proportional to this area. Take now any distances, as SA, SD, SF, in harmonic progression, and the differences A_a_ - D_d_, D_d_ - F_f_ will be equal; and therefore the areas thlx, xlnz, proportional to those differences will be equal among themselves, and the densities S_t_, S_x_, S_z_, that is, AH, DL, FN, continually proportional. Q.E.D.

COR. Hence if any two densities of the fluid, as AH and BI, be given, the area thiu, answering to their difference tu, will be given; and thence the density FN will be found at any height SF, by taking the area thnz to that given area thiu as the difference A_a_ - F_f_ to the difference A_a_ - B_b_.

SCHOLIUM.

By a like reasoning it may be proved, that if the gravity of the particles of a fluid be diminished in a triplicate ratio of the distances from the centre; and the reciprocals of the squares of the distances SA, SB, SC, &c., be taken in an arithmetical progression, the densities AH, BI, CK, &c., will be in a geometrical progression. And if the gravity be diminished in a quadruplicate ratio of the distances, and the reciprocals of the cubes of the distances be taken in arithmetical progression, the densities AH, BI, CK, &c., will be in geometrical progression. And so in infinitum. Again; if the gravity of the particles of the fluid be the same at all distances, and the distances be in arithmetical progression, the densities will be in a geometrical progression as Dr. Halley has found. If the gravity be as the distance, and the squares of the distances be in arithmetical progression, the densities will be in geometrical progression. And so in infinitum. These things will be so, when the density of the fluid condensed by compression is as the force of compression; or, which is the same thing, when the space possessed by the fluid is reciprocally as this force. Other laws of condensation may be supposed, as that the cube of the compressing force may be as the biquadrate of the[Pg 301] density; or the triplicate ratio of the force the same with the quadruplicate ratio of the density: in which case, if the gravity be reciprocally as the square of the distance from the centre, the density will be reciprocally as the cube of the distance. Suppose that the cube of the compressing force be as the quadrato-cube of the density; and if the gravity be reciprocally as the square of the distance, the density will be reciprocally in a sesquiplicate ratio of the distance. Suppose the compressing force to be in a duplicate ratio of the density, and the gravity reciprocally in a duplicate ratio of the distance, and the density will be reciprocally as the distance. To run over all the cases that might be offered would be tedious. But as to our own air, this is certain from experiment, that its density is either accurately, or very nearly at least, as the compressing force; and therefore the density of the air in the atmosphere of the earth is as the weight of the whole incumbent air, that is, as the height of the mercury in the barometer.

PROPOSITION XXIII. THEOREM XVIII.

If a fluid be composed of particles mutually flying each other, and the density be as the compression, the centrifugal forces of the particles will be reciprocally proportional to the distances of their centres. And, vice versa, particles flying each other, with forces that are reciprocally proportional to the distances of their centres, compose an elastic fluid, whose density is as the compression.

Let the fluid be supposed to be included in a cubic space ACE, and then to be reduced by compression into a lesser cubic space ace; and the distances of the particles retaining a like situation with respect to each other in both the spaces, will be as the sides AB, ab of the cubes; and the densities of the mediums will be reciprocally as the containing spaces AB3, ab3. In the plane side of the greater cube ABCD take the square DP equal to the plane side db of the lesser cube: and, by the supposition, the pressure with which the square DP urges the inclosed fluid will be to the pressure with which that square db urges the inclosed fluid as the densities of the mediums are to each other, that is, as ab3 to AB3. But the pressure with which the square DB urges the included fluid is to the pressure with which the square DP urges the same fluid as the square DB to the square DP, that is, as AB2 to ab2. Therefore, ex æquo, the pressure with which the square DB urges the fluid is to the pressure with which the square db urges the fluid as ab to AB. Let the planes FGH, fgh, be drawn through the middles of the two cubes, and divide the fluid into two parts. These parts will press each other mutually with the same forces with which they[Pg 302] are themselves pressed by the planes AC, ac, that is, in the proportion of ab to AB: and therefore the centrifugal forces by which these pressures are sustained are in the same ratio. The number of the particles being equal, and the situation alike, in both cubes, the forces which all the particles exert, according to the planes FGH, fgh, upon all, are as the forces which each exerts on each. Therefore the forces which each exerts on each, according to the plane FGH in the greater cube, are to the forces which each exerts on each, according to the plane fgh in the lesser cube, as ab to AB, that is, reciprocally as the distances of the particles from each other. Q.E.D.

And, vice versa, if the forces of the single particles are reciprocally as the distances, that is, reciprocally as the sides of the cubes AB, ab; the sums of the forces will be in the same ratio, and the pressures of the sides DB, db as the sums of the forces; and the pressure of the square DP to the pressure of the side DB as ab2 to AB2. And, ex æquo, the pressure of the square DP to the pressure of the side db as ab3 to AB3; that is, the force of compression in the one to the force of compression in the other as the density in the former to the density in the latter. Q.E.D.

SCHOLIUM.

By a like reasoning, if the centrifugal forces of the particles are reciprocally in the duplicate ratio of the distances between the centres, the cubes of the compressing forces will be as the biquadrates of the densities. If the centrifugal forces be reciprocally in the triplicate or quadruplicate ratio of the distances, the cubes of the compressing forces will be as the quadrato-cubes, or cubo-cubes of the densities. And universally, if D be put for the distance, and E for the density of the compressed fluid, and the centrifugal forces be reciprocally as any power Dn of the distance, whose index is the number n, the compressing forces will be as the cube roots of the power , whose index is the number n + 2; and the contrary. All these things are to be understood of particles whose centrifugal forces terminate in those particles that are next them, or are diffused not much further. We have an example of this in magnetical bodies. Their attractive virtue is terminated nearly in bodies of their own kind that are next them. The virtue of the magnet is contracted by the interposition of an iron plate, and is almost terminated at it: for bodies further off are not attracted by the magnet so much as by the iron plate. If in this manner particles repel others of their own kind that lie next them, but do not exert their virtue on the more remote, particles of this kind will compose such fluids as are treated of in this Proposition. If the virtue of any particle diffuse itself every way in infinitum, there will be required a greater force to produce an equal condensation of a greater quantity of the fluid. But whether[Pg 303] elastic fluids do really consist of particles so repelling each other, is a physical question. We have here demonstrated mathematically the property of fluids consisting of particles of this kind, that hence philosophers may take occasion to discuss that question.

SECTION VI.

Of the motion and resistance of funependulous bodies.

PROPOSITION XXIV. THEOREM XIX.

The quantities of matter in funependulous bodies, whose centres of oscillation are equally distant from the centre of suspension, are in a ratio compounded of the ratio of the weights and the duplicate ratio of the times of the oscillations in vacuo.

For the velocity which a given force can generate in a given matter in a given time is as the force and the time directly, and the matter inversely. The greater the force or the time is, or the less the matter, the greater velocity will be generated. This is manifest from the second Law of Motion. Now if pendulums are of the same length, the motive forces in places equally distant from the perpendicular are as the weights: and therefore if two bodies by oscillating describe equal arcs, and those arcs are divided into equal parts; since the times in which the bodies describe each of the correspondent parts of the arcs are as the times of the whole oscillations, the velocities in the correspondent parts of the oscillations will be to each other as the motive forces and the whole times of the oscillations directly, and the quantities of matter reciprocally: and therefore the quantities of matter are as the forces and the times of the oscillations directly and the velocities reciprocally. But the velocities reciprocally are as the times, and therefore the times directly and the velocities reciprocally are as the squares of the times; and therefore the quantities of matter are as the motive forces and the squares of the times, that is, as the weights and the squares of the times. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Therefore if the times are equal, the quantities of matter in each of the bodies are as the weights.

COR. 2. If the weights are equal, the quantities of matter will be as the squares of the times.

COR. 3. If the quantities of matter are equal, the weights will be reciprocally as the squares of the times.

COR. 4. Whence since the squares of the times, cæteris paribus, are as the lengths of the pendulums, therefore if both the times and quantities of matter are equal, the weights will be as the lengths of the pendulums.

[Pg 304]

COR. 5. And universally, the quantity of matter in the pendulous body is as the weight and the square of the time directly, and the length of the pendulum inversely.

COR. 6. But in a non-resisting medium, the quantity of matter in the pendulous body is as the comparative weight and the square of the time directly, and the length of the pendulum inversely. For the comparative weight is the motive force of the body in any heavy medium, as was shewn above; and therefore does the same thing in such a non-resisting medium as the absolute weight does in a vacuum.

COR. 7. And hence appears a method both of comparing bodies one among another, as to the quantity of matter in each; and of comparing the weights of the same body in different places, to know the variation of its gravity. And by experiments made with the greatest accuracy, I have always found the quantity of matter in bodies to be proportional to their weight.

PROPOSITION XXV. THEOREM XX.

Funependulous bodies that are, in any medium, resisted in the ratio of the moments of time, and funependulous bodies that move in a non-resisting medium of the same specific gravity, perform their oscillations in a cycloid in the same time, and describe proportional parts of arcs together.

Let AB be an arc of a cycloid, which a body D, by vibrating in a non-resisting medium, shall describe in any time. Bisect that arc in C, so that C may be the lowest point thereof; and the accelerative force with which the body is urged in any place D, or d or E, will be as the length of the arc CD, or C_d_, or CE. Let that force be expressed by that same arc; and since the resistance is as the moment of the time, and therefore given, let it be expressed by the given part CO of the cycloidal arc, and take the arc O_d_ in the same ratio to the arc CD that the arc OB has to the arc CB: and the force with which the body in d is urged in a resisting medium, being the excess of the force C_d_ above the resistance CO, will be expressed by the arc O_d_, and will therefore be to the force with which the body D is urged in a non-resisting medium in the place D, as the arc O_d_ to the arc CD; and therefore also in the place B, as the arc OB to the arc CB. Therefore if two bodies D, d go from the place B, and are urged by these forces; since the forces at the beginning are as the arc CB and OB, the first velocities and arcs first described will be in the same ratio. Let those arcs be BD and B_d_, and the remaining arcs[Pg 305] CD, O_d_, will be in the same ratio. Therefore the forces, being proportional to those arcs CD, O_d_, will remain in the same ratio as at the beginning, and therefore the bodies will continue describing together arcs in the same ratio. Therefore the forces and velocities and the remaining arcs CD, O_d_, will be always as the whole arcs CB, OB, and therefore those remaining arcs will be described together. Therefore the two bodies D and d will arrive together at the places C and O; that which moves in the non-resisting medium, at the place C, and the other, in the resisting medium, at the place O. Now since the velocities in C and O are as the arcs CB, OB, the arcs which the bodies describe when they go farther will be in the same ratio. Let those arcs be CE and O_e_. The force with which the body D in a non-resisting medium is retarded in E is as CE, and the force with which the body d in the resisting medium is retarded in e, is as the sum of the force C_e_ and the resistance CO, that is, as O_e_; and therefore the forces with which the bodies are retarded are as the arcs CB, OB, proportional to the arcs CE, O_e_; and therefore the velocities, retarded in that given ratio, remain in the same given ratio. Therefore the velocities and the arcs described with those velocities are always to each other in that given ratio of the arcs CB and OB; and therefore if the entire arcs AB, _a_B are taken in the same ratio, the bodies D and d will describe those arcs together, and in the places A and a will lose all their motion together. Therefore the whole oscillations are isochronal, or are performed in equal times; and any parts of the arcs, as BD, B_d_, or BE, B_e_, that are described together, are proportional to the whole arcs BA, B_a_. Q.E.D.

COR. Therefore the swiftest motion in a resisting medium does not fall upon the lowest point C, but is found in that point O, in which the whole arc described B_a_, is bisected. And the body, proceeding from thence to a, is retarded at the same rate with which it was accelerated before in its descent from B to O.

PROPOSITION XXVI. THEOREM XXI.

Funependulous bodies, that are resisted in the ratio of the velocity, have their oscillations in a cycloid isochronal.

For if two bodies, equally distant from their centres of suspension, describe, in oscillating, unequal arcs, and the velocities in the correspondent parts of the arcs be to each other as the whole arcs; the resistances, proportional to the velocities, will be also to each other as the same arcs. Therefore if these resistances be subducted from or added to the motive forces arising from gravity which are as the same arcs, the differences or sums will be to each other in the same ratio of the arcs; and since the increments and decrements of the velocities are as these differences or sums, the velocities will be always as the whole arcs; therefore if the velocities are in any one case as the whole arcs, they will remain always in the same[Pg 306] ratio. But at the beginning of the motion, when the bodies begin to descend and describe those arcs, the forces, which at that time are proportional to the arcs, will generate velocities proportional to the arcs. Therefore the velocities will be always as the whole arcs to be described, and therefore those arcs will be described in the same time. Q.E.D.

PROPOSITION XXVII. THEOREM XXII.

If funependulous bodies are resisted in the duplicate ratio of their velocities, the differences between the times of the oscillations in a resisting medium, and the times of the oscillations in a non-resisting medium of the same specific gravity, will be proportional to the arcs described in oscillating nearly.

For let equal pendulums in a resisting medium describe the unequal arcs A, B; and the resistance of the body in the arc A will be to the resistance of the body in the correspondent part of the arc B in the duplicate ratio of the velocities, that is, as AA to BB nearly. If the resistance in the arc B were to the resistance in the arc A as AB to AA, the times in the arcs A and B would be equal (by the last Prop.). Therefore the resistance AA in the arc A, or AB in the arc B, causes the excess of the time in the arc A above the time in a non-resisting medium; and the resistance BB causes the excess of the time in the arc B above the time in a non-resisting medium. But those excesses are as the efficient forces AB and BB nearly, that is, as the arcs A and B. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Hence from the times of the oscillations in unequal arcs in a resisting medium, may be known the times of the oscillations in a non-resisting medium of the same specific gravity. For the difference of the times will be to the excess of the time in the lesser arc above the time in a non-resisting medium as the difference of the arcs to the lesser arc.

COR. 2. The shorter oscillations are more isochronal, and very short ones are performed nearly in the same times as in a non-resisting medium. But the times of those which are performed in greater arcs are a little greater, because the resistance in the descent of the body, by which the time is prolonged, is greater, in proportion to the length described in the descent than the resistance in the subsequent ascent, by which the time is contracted. But the time of the oscillations, both short and long, seems to be prolonged in some measure by the motion of the medium. For retarded bodies are resisted somewhat less in proportion to the velocity, and accelerated bodies somewhat more than those that proceed uniformly forwards;[Pg 307] because the medium, by the motion it has received from the bodies, going forwards the same way with them, is more agitated in the former case, and less in the latter; and so conspires more or less with the bodies moved. Therefore it resists the pendulums in their descent more, and in their ascent less, than in proportion to the velocity; and these two causes concurring prolong the time.

PROPOSITION XXVIII. THEOREM XXIII.

If a funependulous body, oscillating in a cycloid, be resisted in the ratio of the moments of the time, its resistance will be to the force of gravity as the excess of the arc described in the whole descent above the arc described in the subsequent ascent to twice the length of the pendulum.

Let BC represent the arc described in the descent, C_a_ the arc described in the ascent, and A_a_ the difference of the arcs: and things remaining as they were constructed and demonstrated in Prop. XXV, the force with which the oscillating body is urged in any place D will be to the force of resistance as the arc CD to the arc CO, which is half of that difference A_a_. Therefore the force with which the oscillating body is urged at the beginning or the highest point of the cycloid, that is, the force of gravity, will be to the resistance as the arc of the cycloid, between that highest point and lowest point C, is to the arc CO; that is (doubling those arcs), as the whole cycloidal arc, or twice the length of the pendulum, to the arc A_a_. Q.E.D.

PROPOSITION XXIX. PROBLEM VI.

Supposing that a body oscillating in a cycloid is resisted in a duplicate ratio of the velocity: to find the resistance in each place.

Let B_a_ be an arc described in one entire oscillation, C the lowest point of the cycloid, and CZ half the whole cycloidal arc, equal to the length of the pendulum; and let it be required to find the resistance of the body in[Pg 308] any place D. Cut the indefinite right line OQ in the points O, S, P, Q, so that (erecting the perpendiculars OK, ST, PI, QE, and with the centre O, and the asymptotes OK, OQ, describing the hyperbola TIGE cutting the perpendiculars ST, PI, QE in T, I, and E, and through the point I drawing KF, parallel to the asymptote OQ, meeting the asymptote OK in K, and the perpendiculars ST and QE in L and F) the hyperbolic area PIEQ may be to the hyperbolic area PITS as the arc BC, described in the descent of the body, to the arc C_a_ described in the ascent; and that the area IEF may be to the area ILT as OQ to OS. Then with the perpendicular MN cut off the hyperbolic area PINM, and let that area be to the hyperbolic area PIEQ as the arc CZ to the arc BC described in the descent. And if the perpendicular RG cut off the hyperbolic area PIGR, which shall be to the area PIEQ as any arc CD to the arc BC described in the whole descent, the resistance in any place D will be to the force of gravity as the area to the area PINM.

For since the forces arising from gravity with which the body is urged in the places Z, B, D, a, are as the arcs CZ, CB, CD, C_a_ and those arcs are as the areas PINM, PIEQ, PIGR, PITS; let those areas be the exponents both of the arcs and of the forces respectively. Let D_d_ be a very small space described by the body in its descent: and let it be expressed by the very small area RG_gr_ comprehended between the parallels RG, rg; and produce rg to h, so that GH_hg_ and RG_gr_ may be the contemporaneous decrements of the areas IGH, PIGR. And the increment , or , of the area will be to the decrement RG_gr_, or R_r_ × RG, of the area PIGR, as to RG; and therefore as to OR × GR or OP × PI, that is (because of the equal quantities OR × HG, OR × HR - OR × GR, ORHK - OPIK, PIHR and PIGR + IGH), as to OPIK. Therefore if the area be called Y, and RG_gr_ the decrement of the area PIGR be given, the increment of the area Y will be as PIGR - Y.

Then if V represent the force arising from the gravity, proportional to the arc CD to be described, by which the body is acted upon in D, and R be put for the resistance, V - R will be the whole force with which the body is urged in D. Therefore the increment of the velocity is as V - R and the particle of time in which it is generated conjunctly. But the velocity itself is as the contemporaneous increment of the space described directly[Pg 309] and the same particle of time inversely. Therefore, since the resistance is, by the supposition, as the square of the velocity, the increment of the resistance will (by Lem. II) be as the velocity and the increment of the velocity conjunctly, that is, as the moment of the space and V - R conjunctly; and, therefore, if the moment of the space be given, as V - R; that is, if for the force V we put its exponent PIGR, and the resistance R be expressed by any other area Z, as PIGR - Z.

Therefore the area PIGR uniformly decreasing by the subduction of given moments, the area Y increases in proportion of PIGR - Y, and the area Z in proportion of PIGR - Z. And therefore if the areas Y and Z begin together, and at the beginning are equal, these, by the addition of equal moments, will continue to be equal; and in like manner decreasing by equal moments, will vanish together. And, vice versa, if they together begin and vanish, they will have equal moments and be always equal; and that, because if the resistance Z be augmented, the velocity together with the arc C_a_, described in the ascent of the body, will be diminished; and the point in which all the motion together with the resistance ceases coming nearer to the point C, the resistance vanishes sooner than the area Y. And the contrary will happen when the resistance is diminished.

Now the area Z begins and ends where the resistance is nothing, that is, at the beginning of the motion where the arc CD is equal to the arc CB, and the right line RG falls upon the right line QE; and at the end of the motion where the arc CD is equal to the arc C_a_, and RG falls upon the right line ST. And the area Y or begins and ends also where the resistance is nothing, and therefore where and IGH are equal; that is (by the construction), where the right line RG falls successively upon the right lines QE and ST. Therefore those areas begin and vanish together, and are therefore always equal. Therefore the area is equal to the area Z, by which the resistance is expressed, and therefore is to the area PINM, by which the gravity is expressed, as the resistance to the gravity. Q.E.D.

[Pg 310]

COR. 1. Therefore the resistance in the lowest place C is to the force of gravity as the area to the area PINM.

COR. 2. But it becomes greatest where the area PIHR is to the area IEF as OR to OQ. For in that case its moment (that is, PIGR - Y) becomes nothing.

COR. 3. Hence also may be known the velocity in each place, as being in the subduplicate ratio of the resistance, and at the beginning of the motion equal to the velocity of the body oscillating in the same cycloid without any resistance.

However, by reason of the difficulty of the calculation by which the resistance and the velocity are found by this Proposition, we have thought fit to subjoin the Proposition following.

PROPOSITION XXX. THEOREM XXIV.

If a right line aB be equal to the arc of a cycloid which an oscillating body describes, and at each of its points D the perpendiculars DK be erected, which shall be to the length of the pendulum as the resistance of the body in the corresponding points of the arc to the force of gravity; I say, that the difference between the arc described in the whole descent and the arc described in the whole subsequent ascent drawn into half the sum of the same arcs will be equal to the area BKa which all those perpendiculars take up.

Let the arc of the cycloid, described in one entire oscillation, be expressed by the right line _a_B, equal to it, and the arc which would have been described in vacuo by the length AB. Bisect AB in C, and the point C will represent the lowest point of the cycloid, and CD will be as the force arising from gravity, with which the body in D is urged in the direction of the tangent of the cycloid, and will have the same ratio to the length of the pendulum as the force in D has to the force of gravity. Let that force, therefore, be expressed by that length CD, and the force of gravity by the length of the pendulum; and if in DE you take DK in the same ratio to the length of the pendulum as the resistance has to the gravity, DK will be the exponent of the resistance. From the centre C with the interval CA or CB describe a semi-circle BE_e_A. Let the body describe, in the least time, the space D_d_; and, erecting the perpendiculars DE, de, meeting the circumference in E and e, they will be as the velocities which the body descending in vacuo from the point B would acquire in the places D and d. This appears by Prop. LII, Book I. Let[Pg 311] therefore, these velocities be expressed by those perpendiculars DE, de; and let DF be the velocity which it acquires in D by falling from B in the resisting medium. And if from the centre C with the interval CF we describe the circle F_f_M meeting the right lines de and AB in f and M, then M will be the place to which it would thenceforward, without farther resistance, ascend, and df the velocity it would acquire in d. Whence, also, if F_g_ represent the moment of the velocity which the body D, in describing the least space D_d_, loses by the resistance of the medium; and CN be taken equal to C_g_; then will N be the place to which the body, if it met no farther resistance, would thenceforward ascend, and MN will be the decrement of the ascent arising from the loss of that velocity. Draw F_m_ perpendicular to df, and the decrement F_g_ of the velocity DF generated by the resistance DK will be to the increment fm of the same velocity, generated by the force CD, as the generating force DK to the generating force CD. But because of the similar triangles F_mf_, F_hg_, FDC, fm is to F_m_ or D_d_ as CD to DF; and, ex æquo, F_g_ to D_d_ as DK to DF. Also F_h_ is to F_g_ as DF to CF; and, ex æquo perturbatè, F_h_ or MN to D_d_ as DK to CF or CM; and therefore the sum of all the MN × CM will be equal to the sum of all the D_d_ × DK. At the moveable point M suppose always a rectangular ordinate erected equal to the indeterminate CM, which by a continual motion is drawn into the whole length A_a_; and the trapezium described by that motion, or its equal, the rectangle , will be equal to the sum of all the MN × CM, and therefore to the sum of all the D_d_ × DK, that is, to the area BKVT_a_ Q.E.D.

COR. Hence from the law of resistance, and the difference A_a_ of the arcs C_a_, CB, may be collected the proportion of the resistance to the gravity nearly.

For if the resistance DK be uniform, the figure BKT_a_ will be a rectangle under B_a_ and DK; and thence the rectangle under and A_a_ will be equal to the rectangle under B_a_ and DK, and DK will be equal to . Wherefore since DK is the exponent of the resistance, and the length of the pendulum the exponent of the gravity, the resistance will be to the gravity as to the length of the pendulum; altogether as in Prop. XXVIII is demonstrated.

If the resistance be as the velocity, the figure BKT_a_ will be nearly an ellipsis. For if a body, in a non-resisting medium, by one entire oscillation, should describe the length BA, the velocity in any place D would be as the ordinate DE of the circle described on the diameter AB. Therefore since B_a_ in the resisting medium, and BA in the non-resisting one, are described nearly in the same times; and therefore the velocities in each of the points of B_a_ are to the velocities in the correspondent points of the length BA nearly as B_a_ is to BA, the velocity in the point D in the resisting[Pg 312] medium will be as the ordinate of the circle or ellipsis described upon the diameter B_a_; and therefore the figure BKVT_a_ will be nearly an ellipsis. Since the resistance is supposed proportional to the velocity, let OV be the exponent of the resistance in the middle point O; and an ellipsis BRVS_a_ described with the centre O, and the semi-axes OB, OV, will be nearly equal to the figure BKVT_a_, and to its equal the rectangle A_a_ × BO. Therefore A_a_ × BO is to OV × BO as the area of this ellipsis to OV × BO; that is, A_a_ is to OV as the area of the semi-circle to the square of the radius, or as 11 to 7 nearly; and, therefore, is to the length of the pendulum as the resistance of the oscillating body in O to its gravity.

Now if the resistance DK be in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, the figure BKVT_a_ will be almost a parabola having V for its vertex and OV for its axis, and therefore will be nearly equal to the rectangle under and OV. Therefore the rectangle under and A_a_ is equal to the rectangle , and therefore OV is equal to ; and therefore the resistance in O made to the oscillating body is to its gravity as to the length of the pendulum.

And I take these conclusions to be accurate enough for practical uses. For since an ellipsis or parabola BRVS_a_ falls in with the figure BKVT_a_ in the middle point V, that figure, if greater towards the part BRV or VS_a_ than the other, is less towards the contrary part, and is therefore nearly equal to it.

PROPOSITION XXXI. THEOREM XXV.

If the resistance made to an oscillating body in each of the proportional parts of the arcs described be augmented or diminished in a given ratio, the difference between the arc described in the descent and the arc described in the subsequent ascent will be augmented or diminished in the same ratio.

For that difference arises from the retardation of the pendulum by the resistance of the medium, and therefore is as the whole retardation and the retarding resistance proportional thereto. In the foregoing Proposition the rectangle under the right line and the difference A_a_ of the arcs CB, C_a_, was equal to the area BKT_a_. And that area, if the length _a_B remains, is augmented or diminished in the ratio of the ordinates DK; that is, in the ratio of the resistance and is therefore as the length _a_B and the resistance conjunctly. And therefore the rectangle under A_a_ and is as _a_B and the resistance conjunctly, and therefore A_a_ is as the resistance. Q.E.D.

[Pg 313]

COR. 1. Hence if the resistance be as the velocity, the difference of the arcs in the same medium will be as the whole arc described: and the contrary.

COR. 2. If the resistance be in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, that difference will be in the duplicate ratio of the whole arc: and the contrary.

COR. 3. And universally, if the resistance be in the triplicate or any other ratio of the velocity, the difference will be in the same ratio of the whole arc: and the contrary.

COR. 4. If the resistance be partly in the simple ratio of the velocity, and partly in the duplicate ratio of the same, the difference will be partly in the ratio of the whole arc, and partly in the duplicate ratio of it: and the contrary. So that the law and ratio of the resistance will be the same for the velocity as the law and ratio of that difference for the length of the arc.

COR. 5. And therefore if a pendulum describe successively unequal arcs, and we can find the ratio of the increment or decrement of this difference for the length of the arc described, there will be had also the ratio of the increment or decrement of the resistance for a greater or less velocity.

GENERAL SCHOLIUM.

From these propositions we may find the resistance of mediums by pendulums oscillating therein. I found the resistance of the air by the following experiments. I suspended a wooden globe or ball weighing ounces troy, its diameter London inches, by a fine thread on a firm hook, so that the distance between the hook and the centre of oscillation of the globe was feet. I marked on the thread a point 10 feet and 1 inch distant from the centre of suspension; and even with that point I placed a ruler divided into inches, by the help whereof I observed the lengths of the arcs described by the pendulum. Then I numbered the oscillations in which the globe would lose part of its motion. If the pendulum was drawn aside from the perpendicular to the distance of 2 inches, and thence let go, so that in its whole descent it described an arc of 2 inches, and in the first whole oscillation, compounded of the descent and subsequent ascent, an arc of almost 4 inches, the same in 164 oscillations lost part of its motion, so as in its last ascent to describe an arc of inches. If in the first descent it described an arc of 4 inches, it lost part of its motion in 121 oscillations, so as in its last ascent to describe an arc of inches. If in the first descent it described an arc of 8, 16, 32, or 64 inches, it lost part of its motion in 69, , , oscillations, respectively. Therefore the difference between the arcs described in the first descent and the last ascent was in the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th cases, , , 1, 2, 4, 8 inches respectively. Divide those differences by the number of oscillations in each case, and in one mean oscillation, wherein an arc of , , 15, 30[Pg 314] 60, 120 inches was described, the difference of the arcs described in the descent and subsequent ascent will be , , , , , parts of an inch, respectively. But these differences in the greater oscillations are in the duplicate ratio of the arcs described nearly, but in lesser oscillations something greater than in that ratio; and therefore (by Cor. 2, Prop. XXXI of this Book) the resistance of the globe, when it moves very swift, is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, nearly; and when it moves slowly, somewhat greater than in that ratio.

[Pg 315]

Now let V represent the greatest velocity in any oscillation, and let A, B, and C be given quantities, and let us suppose the difference of the arcs to be . Since the greatest velocities are in the cycloid as the arcs described in oscillating, and in the circle as the chords of those arcs; and therefore in equal arcs are greater in the cycloid than in the circle in the ratio of the arcs to their chords; but the times in the circle are greater than in the cycloid, in a reciprocal ratio of the velocity; it is plain that the differences of the arcs (which are as the resistance and the square of the time conjunctly) are nearly the same in both curves: for in the cycloid those differences must be on the one hand augmented, with the resistance, in about the duplicate ratio of the arc to the chord, because of the velocity augmented in the simple ratio of the same; and on the other hand diminished, with the square of the time, in the same duplicate ratio. Therefore to reduce these observations to the cycloid, we must take the same differences of the arcs as were observed in the circle, and suppose the greatest velocities analogous to the half, or the whole arcs, that is, to the numbers , 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Therefore in the 2d, 4th, and 6th cases, put 1, 4, and 16 for V; and the difference of the arcs in the 2d case will become = A + B + C; in the 4th case, = 4A + 8B + 16C; in the 6th case, = 16A + 64B + 256C. These equations reduced give A = 0,0000916, B = 0,0010847, and C = 0,0029558. Therefore the difference of the arcs is as : and therefore since (by Cor. Prop. XXX, applied to this case) the resistance of the globe in the middle of the arc described in oscillating, where the velocity is V, is to its weight as to the length of the pendulum, if for A, B, and C you put the numbers found, the resistance of the globe will be to its weight as to the length of the pendulum between the centre of suspension and the ruler, that is, to 121 inches. Therefore since V in the second case represents 1, in the 4th case 4, and in the 6th case 16, the resistance will be to the weight of the globe, in the 2d case, as 0,0030345 to 121; in the 4th, as 0,041748 to 121; in the 6th, as 0,61705 to 121.

The arc, which the point marked in the thread described in the 6th case, was of , or inches. And therefore since the radius was 121 inches, and the length of the pendulum between the point of suspension and the centre of the globe was 126 inches, the arc which the centre of the globe described was inches. Because the greatest velocity of the oscillating body, by reason of the resistance of the air, does not fall on the lowest point of the arc described, but near the middle place of the whole arc, this velocity will be nearly the same as if the globe in its whole descent in a non-resisting medium should describe inches, the half of that arc, and that in a cycloid, to which we have above reduced the motion of the pendulum; and therefore that velocity will be equal to that which the globe would acquire by falling perpendicularly from a height equal to the versed sine of that arc. But that versed sine in the cycloid is to that arc as the same arc to twice the length of the pendulum 252, and therefore equal to 15,278 inches. Therefore the velocity of the pendulum is the same which a body would acquire by falling, and in its fall describing a space of 15,278 inches. Therefore with such a velocity the globe meets with a resistance which is to its weight as 0,61705 to 121, or (if we take that part only of the resistance which is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity) as 0,56752 to 121.

I found, by an hydrostatical experiment, that the weight of this wooden globe was to the weight of a globe of water of the same magnitude as 55 to 97: and therefore since 121 is to 213,4 in the same ratio, the resistance made to this globe of water, moving forwards with the above-mentioned velocity, will be to its weight as 0,56752 to 213,4, that is, as 1 to . Whence since the weight of a globe of water, in the time in which the globe with a velocity uniformly continued describes a length of 30,556 inches, will generate all that velocity in the falling globe, it is manifest that the force of resistance uniformly continued in the same time will take away a velocity, which will be less than the other in the ratio of 1 to , that is, the part of the whole velocity. And therefore in the time that the globe, with the same velocity uniformly continued, would describe the length of its semi-diameter, or inches, it would lose the part of its motion.

I also counted the oscillations in which the pendulum lost part of its motion. In the following table the upper numbers denote the length of the arc described in the first descent, expressed in inches and parts of an inch; the middle numbers denote the length of the arc described in the last ascent; and in the lowest place are the numbers of the oscillations. I give an account of this experiment, as being more accurate than that in which[Pg 316] only part of the motion was lost. I leave the calculation to such as are disposed to make it.

I afterward suspended a leaden globe of 2 inches in diameter, weighing ounces troy by the same thread, so that between the centre of the globe and the point of suspension there was an interval of feet, and I counted the oscillations in which a given part of the motion was lost. The first of the following tables exhibits the number of oscillations in which part of the whole motion was lost; the second the number of oscillations in which there was lost part of the same.

Selecting in the first table the 3d, 5th, and 7th observations, and expressing the greatest velocities in these observations particularly by the numbers 1, 4, 16 respectively, and generally by the quantity V as above, there will come out in the 3d observation , in the 5th observation , in the 7th observation . These equations reduced give A = 0,001414, B = 0,000297, C = 0,000879. And thence the resistance of the globe moving with the velocity V will be to its weight ounces in the same ratio as to 121 inches, the length of the pendulum. And if we regard that part only of the resistance which is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, it will be to the weight of the globe as to 121 inches. But this part of the resistance in the first experiment was to the weight of the wooden globe of ounces as to 121; and thence the resistance of the wooden globe is to the resistance of the leaden one (their velocities being equal) as into 0,002217 to into 0,000659, that is, as to 1. The diameters of the two globes were and 2 inches, and the squares of these are to each other as and 4, or and 1, nearly. Therefore the resistances of these equally swift globes were in less than a duplicate ratio of the diameters. But we have not yet considered the resistance of the thread, which was certainly very considerable, and ought to be subducted from the resistance of the pendulums here found. I could not determine this accurately, but I found it[Pg 317] greater than a third part of the whole resistance of the lesser pendulum; and thence I gathered that the resistances of the globes, when the resistance of the thread is subducted, are nearly in the duplicate ratio of their diameters. For the ratio of to , or to 1 is not very different from the duplicate ratio of the diameters to 1.

Since the resistance of the thread is of less moment in greater globes, I tried the experiment also with a globe whose diameter was inches. The length of the pendulum between the point of suspension and the centre of oscillation was inches, and between the point of suspension and the knot in the thread inches. The arc described by the knot at the first descent of the pendulum was 32 inches. The arc described by the same knot in the last ascent after five oscillations was 28 inches. The sum of the arcs, or the whole arc described in one mean oscillation, was 60 inches. The difference of the arcs 4 inches. The part of this, or the difference between the descent and ascent in one mean oscillation, is of an inch. Then as the radius to the radius , so is the whole arc of 60 inches described by the knot in one mean oscillation to the whole arc of inches described by the centre of the globe in one mean oscillation; and so is the difference to a new difference 0,4475. If the length of the arc described were to remain, and the length of the pendulum should be augmented in the ratio of 126 to , the time of the oscillation would be augmented, and the velocity of the pendulum would be diminished in the subduplicate of that ratio; so that the difference 0,4475 of the arcs described in the descent and subsequent ascent would remain. Then if the arc described be augmented in the ratio of to , that difference 0,4475 would be augmented in the duplicate of that ratio, and so would become 1,5295. These things would be so upon the supposition that the resistance of the pendulum were in the duplicate ratio of the velocity. Therefore if the pendulum describe the whole arc of inches, and its length between the point of suspension and the centre of oscillation be 126 inches, the difference of the arcs described in the descent and subsequent ascent would be 1,5295 inches. And this difference multiplied into the weight of the pendulous globe, which was 208 ounces, produces 318,136. Again; in the pendulum above-mentioned, made of a wooden globe, when its centre of oscillation, being 126 inches from the point of suspension, described the whole arc of inches, the difference of the arcs described in the descent and ascent was into . This multiplied into the weight of the globe, which was ounces, produces 49,396. But I multiply these differences into the weights of the globes, in order to find their resistances. For the differences arise from the resistances, and are as the resistances directly and the weights inversely. Therefore the resistances are as the numbers 318,136 and 49,396. But that part of the resistance[Pg 318] of the lesser globe, which is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, was to the whole resistance as 0,56752 to 0,61675, that is, as 45,453 to 49,396; whereas that part of the resistance of the greater globe is almost equal to its whole resistance; and so those parts are nearly as 318,136 and 45,453, that is, as 7 and 1. But the diameters of the globes are and ; and their squares and are as 7,438 and 1, that is, as the resistances of the globes 7 and 1, nearly. The difference of these ratios is scarce greater than may arise from the resistance of the thread. Therefore those parts of the resistances which are, when the globes are equal, as the squares of the velocities, are also, when the velocities are equal, as the squares of the diameters of the globes.

But the greatest of the globes I used in these experiments was not perfectly spherical, and therefore in this calculation I have, for brevity's sake, neglected some little niceties; being not very solicitous for an accurate calculus in an experiment that was not very accurate. So that I could wish that these experiments were tried again with other globes, of a larger size, more in number, and more accurately formed; since the demonstration of a vacuum depends thereon. If the globes be taken in a geometrical proportion, as suppose whose diameters are 4, 8, 16, 32 inches; one may collect from the progression observed in the experiments what would happen if the globes were still larger.

In order to compare the resistances of different fluids with each other, I made the following trials. I procured a wooden vessel 4 feet long, 1 foot broad, and 1 foot high. This vessel, being uncovered, I filled with spring water, and, having immersed pendulums therein, I made them oscillate in the water. And I found that a leaden globe weighing ounces, and in diameter inches, moved therein as it is set down in the following table; the length of the pendulum from the point of suspension to a certain point marked in the thread being 126 inches, and to the centre of oscillation inches.

[Pg 319]

In the experiments of the 4th column there were equal motions lost in 535 oscillations made in the air, and in water. The oscillations in the air were indeed a little swifter than those in the water. But if the oscillations in the water were accelerated in such a ratio that the motions of the pendulums might be equally swift in both mediums, there would be still the same number of oscillations in the water, and by these the same quantity of motion would be lost as before; because the resistance is increased, and the square of the time diminished in the same duplicate ratio. The pendulums, therefore, being of equal velocities, there were equal motions lost in 535 oscillations in the air, and in the water; and therefore the resistance of the pendulum in the water is to its resistance in the air as 535 to . This is the proportion of the whole resistances in the case of the 4th column.

Now let AV + CV2 represent the difference of the arcs described in the descent and subsequent ascent by the globe moving in air with the greatest velocity V; and since the greatest velocity is in the case of the 4th column to the greatest velocity in the case of the 1st column as 1 to 8; and that difference of the arcs in the case of the 4th column to the difference in the case of the 1st column as to , or as to 4280; put in these cases 1 and 8 for the velocities, and and 4280 for the differences of the arcs, and A + C will be = 85, and 8A + 64C = 4280 or A + 8C = 535; and then by reducing these equations, there will come out 7C = 449 and C = 64 and A = 21; and therefore the resistance, which is as , will become as 13. Therefore in the case of the 4th column, where the velocity was 1, the whole resistance is to its part proportional to the square of the velocity as 13 or 61 to 48; and therefore the resistance of the pendulum in water is to that part of the resistance in air, which is proportional to the square of the velocity, and which in swift motions is the only part that deserves consideration, as 61 to 48 and 535 to 1 conjunctly, that is, as 571 to 1. If the whole thread of the pendulum oscillating in the water had been immersed, its resistance would have been still greater; so that the resistance of the pendulum oscillating in the water, that is, that part which is proportional to the square of the velocity, and which only needs to be considered in swift bodies, is to the resistance of the same whole pendulum, oscillating in air with the same velocity, as about 850 to 1, that is as, the density of water to the density of air, nearly.

In this calculation we ought also to have taken in that part of the resistance of the pendulum in the water which was as the square of the velocity; but I found (which will perhaps seem strange) that the resistance in the water was augmented in more than a duplicate ratio of the velocity. In searching after the cause, I thought upon this, that the vessel was too[Pg 320] narrow for the magnitude of the pendulous globe, and by its narrowness obstructed the motion of the water as it yielded to the oscillating globe. For when I immersed a pendulous globe, whose diameter was one inch only, the resistance was augmented nearly in a duplicate ratio of the velocity. I tried this by making a pendulum of two globes, of which the lesser and lower oscillated in the water, and the greater and higher was fastened to the thread just above the water, and, by oscillating in the air, assisted the motion of the pendulum, and continued it longer. The experiments made by this contrivance proved according to the following table.

In comparing the resistances of the mediums with each other, I also caused iron pendulums to oscillate in quicksilver. The length of the iron wire was about 3 feet, and the diameter of the pendulous globe about of an inch. To the wire, just above the quicksilver, there was fixed another leaden globe of a bigness sufficient to continue the motion of the pendulum for some time. Then a vessel, that would hold about 3 pounds of quicksilver, was filled by turns with quicksilver and common water, that, by making the pendulum oscillate successively in these two different fluids, I might find the proportion of their resistances; and the resistance of the quicksilver proved to be to the resistance of water as about 13 or 14 to 1; that is, as the density of quicksilver to the density of water. When I made use of a pendulous globe something bigger, as of one whose diameter was about or of an inch, the resistance of the quicksilver proved to be to the resistance of the water as about 12 or 10 to 1. But the former experiment is more to be relied on, because in the latter the vessel was too narrow in proportion to the magnitude of the immersed globe; for the vessel ought to have been enlarged together with the globe. I intended to have repeated these experiments with larger vessels, and in melted metals, and other liquors both cold and hot; but I had not leisure to try all: and besides, from what is already described, it appears sufficiently that the resistance of bodies moving swiftly is nearly proportional to the densities of the fluids in which they move. I do not say accurately; for more tenacious fluids, of equal density, will undoubtedly resist more than those that are more liquid; as cold oil more than warm, warm oil more than rain-water, and water more than spirit of wine. But in liquors, which are sensibly fluid enough, as in air, in salt and fresh water, in spirit of wine, of turpentine, and salts, in oil cleared of its fæces by distillation and warmed, in oil of vitriol, and in mercury, and melted metals, and any other such like, that are fluid enough to retain for some time the motion impressed[Pg 321] upon them by the agitation of the vessel, and which being poured out are easily resolved into drops, I doubt not but the rule already laid down may be accurate enough, especially if the experiments be made with larger pendulous bodies and more swiftly moved.

Lastly, since it is the opinion of some that there is a certain æthereal medium extremely rare and subtile, which freely pervades the pores of all bodies; and from such a medium, so pervading the pores of bodies, some resistance must needs arise; in order to try whether the resistance, which we experience in bodies in motion, be made upon their outward superficies only, or whether their internal parts meet with any considerable resistance upon their superficies, I thought of the following experiment I suspended a round deal box by a thread 11 feet long, on a steel hook, by means of a ring of the same metal, so as to make a pendulum of the aforesaid length. The hook had a sharp hollow edge on its upper part, so that the upper arc of the ring pressing on the edge might move the more freely; and the thread was fastened to the lower arc of the ring. The pendulum being thus prepared, I drew it aside from the perpendicular to the distance of about 6 feet, and that in a plane perpendicular to the edge of the hook, lest the ring, while the pendulum oscillated, should slide to and fro on the edge of the hook: for the point of suspension, in which the ring touches the hook, ought to remain immovable. I therefore accurately noted the place to which the pendulum was brought, and letting it go, I marked three other places, to which it returned at the end of the 1st, 2d, and 3d oscillation. This I often repeated, that I might find those places as accurately as possible. Then I filled the box with lead and other heavy metals that were near at hand. But, first, I weighed the box when empty, and that part of the thread that went round it, and half the remaining part, extended between the hook and the suspended box; for the thread so extended always acts upon the pendulum, when drawn aside from the perpendicular, with half its weight. To this weight I added the weight of the air contained in the box. And this whole weight was about of the weight of the box when filled with the metals. Then because the box when full of the metals, by extending the thread with its weight, increased the length of the pendulum, I shortened the thread so as to make the length of the pendulum, when oscillating, the same as before. Then drawing aside the pendulum to the place first marked, and letting it go, I reckoned about 77 oscillations before the box returned to the second mark, and as many afterwards before it came to the third mark, and as many after that before it came to the fourth mark. From whence I conclude that the whole resistance of the box, when full, had not a greater proportion to the resistance of the box, when empty, than 78 to 77. For if their resistances were equal, the box, when full, by reason of its vis insita, which was 78 times greater than the vis insita of the same when empty, ought to have continued its oscillating motion so[Pg 322] much the longer, and therefore to have returned to those marks at the end of 78 oscillations. But it returned to them at the end of 77 oscillations.

Let, therefore, A represent the resistance of the box upon its external superficies, and B the resistance of the empty box on its internal superficies; and if the resistances to the internal parts of bodies equally swift be as the matter, or the number of particles that are resisted, then 78B will be the resistance made to the internal parts of the box, when full; and therefore the whole resistance A + B of the empty box will be to the whole resistance A + 78B of the full box as 77 to 78, and, by division, A + B to 77B as 77 to 1; and thence A + B to B as 77 × 77 to 1, and, by division again, A to B as 5928 to 1. Therefore the resistance of the empty box in its internal parts will be above 5000 times less than the resistance on its external superficies. This reasoning depends upon the supposition that the greater resistance of the full box arises not from any other latent cause, but only from the action of some subtile fluid upon the included metal.

[Pg 323]

This experiment is related by memory, the paper being lost in which I had described it; so that I have been obliged to omit some fractional parts, which are split out of my memory; and I have no leisure to try it again. The first time I made it, the hook being weak, the full box was retarded sooner. The cause I found to be, that the hook was not strong enough to bear the weight of the box; so that, as it oscillated to and fro, the hook was bent sometimes this and sometimes that way. I therefore procured a hook of sufficient strength, so that the point of suspension might remain unmoved, and then all things happened as is above described.

SECTION VII.

Of the motion of fluids, and the resistance made to projected bodies.

PROPOSITION XXXII. THEOREM XXVI.

Suppose two similar systems of bodies consisting of an equal number of particles, and let the correspondent particles be similar and proportional, each in one system to each in the other, and have a like situation among themselves, and the same given ratio of density to each other; and let them begin to move among themselves in proportional times, and with like motions (that is, those in one system among one another, and those in the other among one another). And if the particles that are in the same system do not touch one another, except in the moments of reflexion; nor attract, nor repel each other, except with accelerative forces that are as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely, and the squares of the velocities directly; I say, that the particles of those systems will continue to move among themselves with like motions and in proportional times.

Like bodies in like situations are said to be moved among themselves with like motions and in proportional times, when their situations at the end of those times are always found alike in respect of each other; as suppose we compare the particles in one system with the correspondent particles in the other. Hence the times will be proportional, in which similar and proportional parts of similar figures will be described by correspondent particles. Therefore if we suppose two systems of this kind, the correspondent particles, by reason of the similitude of the motions at their beginning, will continue to be moved with like motions, so long as they move without meeting one another; for if they are acted on by no forces, they will go on uniformly in right lines, by the 1st Law. But if they do agitate one another with some certain forces, and those forces are as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely and the squares of the velocities directly, then, because the particles are in like situations, and their forces are proportional, the whole forces with which correspondent particles are agitated, and which are compounded of each of the agitating forces (by Corol. 2 of the Laws), will have like directions, and have the same effect as if they respected centres placed alike among the particles; and those whole forces will be to each other as the several forces which compose them, that is, as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely, and the squares of the velocities directly: and therefore will cause[Pg 324] correspondent particles to continue to describe like figures. These things will be so (by Cor. 1 and 8, Prop. IV., Book I), if those centres are at rest but if they are moved, yet by reason of the similitude of the translations, their situations among the particles of the system will remain similar, so that the changes introduced into the figures described by the particles will still be similar. So that the motions of correspondent and similar particles will continue similar till their first meeting with each other; and thence will arise similar collisions, and similar reflexions; which will again beget similar motions of the particles among themselves (by what was just now shown), till they mutually fall upon one another again, and so on ad infinitum.

COR. 1. Hence if any two bodies, which are similar and in like situations to the correspondent particles of the systems, begin to move amongst them in like manner and in proportional times, and their magnitudes and densities be to each other as the magnitudes and densities of the corresponding particles, these bodies will continue to be moved in like manner and in proportional times; for the case of the greater parts of both systems and of the particles is the very same.

COR. 2. And if all the similar and similarly situated parts of both systems be at rest among themselves; and two of them, which are greater than the rest, and mutually correspondent in both systems, begin to move in lines alike posited, with any similar motion whatsoever, they will excite similar motions in the rest of the parts of the systems, and will continue to move among those parts in like manner and in proportional times; and will therefore describe spaces proportional to their diameters.

PROPOSITION XXXIII. THEOREM XXVII.

The same things being supposed, I say, that the greater parts of the systems are resisted in a ratio compounded of the duplicate ratio of their velocities, and the duplicate ratio of their diameters, and the simple ratio of the density of the parts of the systems.

For the resistance arises partly from the centripetal or centrifugal forces with which the particles of the system mutually act on each other, partly from the collisions and reflexions of the particles and the greater parts. The resistances of the first kind are to each other as the whole motive forces from which they arise, that is, as the whole accelerative forces and the quantities of matter in corresponding parts; that is (by the supposition), as the squares of the velocities directly, and the distances of the corresponding particles inversely, and the quantities of matter in the correspondent parts directly: and therefore since the distances of the particles in one system are to the correspondent distances of the particles of the other as the diameter of one particle or part in the former system to the[Pg 325] diameter of the correspondent particle or part in the other, and since the quantities of matter are as the densities of the parts and the cubes of the diameters; the resistances are to each other as the squares of the velocities and the squares of the diameters and the densities of the parts of the systems. Q.E.D. The resistances of the latter sort are as the number of correspondent reflexions and the forces of those reflexions conjunctly; but the number of the reflexions are to each other as the velocities of the corresponding parts directly and the spaces between their reflexions inversely. And the forces of the reflexions are as the velocities and the magnitudes and the densities of the corresponding parts conjunctly; that is, as the velocities and the cubes of the diameters and the densities of the parts. And, joining all these ratios, the resistances of the corresponding parts are to each other as the squares of the velocities and the squares of the diameters and the densities of the parts conjunctly. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Therefore if those systems are two elastic fluids, like our air, and their parts are at rest among themselves; and two similar bodies proportional in magnitude and density to the parts of the fluids, and similarly situated among those parts, be any how projected in the direction of lines similarly posited; and the accelerative forces with which the particles of the fluids mutually act upon each other are as the diameters of the bodies projected inversely and the squares of their velocities directly; those bodies will excite similar motions in the fluids in proportional times, and will describe similar spaces and proportional to their diameters.

COR. 2. Therefore in the same fluid a projected body that moves swiftly meets with a resistance that is, in the duplicate ratio of its velocity, nearly. For if the forces with which distant particles act mutually upon one another should be augmented in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, the projected body would be resisted in the same duplicate ratio accurately; and therefore in a medium, whose parts when at a distance do not act mutually with any force on one another, the resistance is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity accurately. Let there be, therefore, three mediums A, B, C, consisting of similar and equal parts regularly disposed at equal distances. Let the parts of the mediums A and B recede from each other with forces that are among themselves as T and V; and let the parts of the medium C be entirely destitute of any such forces. And if four equal bodies D, E, F, G, move in these mediums, the two first D and E in the two first A and B, and the other two F and G in the third C; and if the velocity of the body D be to the velocity of the body E, and the velocity of the body F to the velocity of the body G, in the subduplicate ratio of the force T to the force V; the resistance of the body D to the resistance of the body E, and the resistance of the body F to the resistance of the body G, will be in the duplicate ratio of the velocities; and therefore the resistance of the body D will be to the resistance of the body F as the resistance[Pg 326] of the body E to the resistance of the body G. Let the bodies D and F be equally swift, as also the bodies E and G; and, augmenting the velocities of the bodies D and F in any ratio, and diminishing the forces of the particles of the medium B in the duplicate of the same ratio, the medium B will approach to the form and condition of the medium C at pleasure; and therefore the resistances of the equal and equally swift bodies E and G in these mediums will perpetually approach to equality so that their difference will at last become less than any given. Therefore since the resistances of the bodies D and F are to each other as the resistances of the bodies E and G, those will also in like manner approach to the ratio of equality. Therefore the bodies D and F, when they move with very great swiftness, meet with resistances very nearly equal; and therefore since the resistance of the body F is in a duplicate ratio of the velocity, the resistance of the body D will be nearly in the same ratio.

COR. 3. The resistance of a body moving very swift in an elastic fluid is almost the same as if the parts of the fluid were destitute of their centrifugal forces, and did not fly from each other; if so be that the elasticity of the fluid arise from the centrifugal forces of the particles, and the velocity be so great as not to allow the particles time enough to act.

COR. 4. Therefore, since the resistances of similar and equally swift bodies, in a medium whose distant parts do not fly from each other, are as the squares of the diameters, the resistances made to bodies moving with very great and equal velocities in an elastic fluid will be as the squares of the diameters, nearly.

COR. 5. And since similar, equal, and equally swift bodies, moving through mediums of the same density, whose particles do not fly from each other mutually, will strike against an equal quantity of matter in equal times, whether the particles of which the medium consists be more and smaller, or fewer and greater, and therefore impress on that matter an equal quantity of motion, and in return (by the 3d Law of Motion) suffer an equal re-action from the same, that is, are equally resisted; it is manifest, also, that in elastic fluids of the same density, when the bodies move with extreme swiftness, their resistances are nearly equal, whether the fluids consist of gross parts, or of parts ever so subtile. For the resistance of projectiles moving with exceedingly great celerities is not much diminished by the subtilty of the medium.

COR. 6. All these things are so in fluids whose elastic force takes its rise from the centrifugal forces of the particles. But if that force arise from some other cause, as from the expansion of the particles after the manner of wool, or the boughs of trees, or any other cause, by which the particles are hindered from moving freely among themselves, the resistance, by reason of the lesser fluidity of the medium, will be greater than in the Corollaries above.

[Pg 327]

PROPOSITION XXXIV. THEOREM XXVIII.

If in a rare medium, consisting of equal particles freely disposed at equal distances from each other, a globe and a cylinder described on equal diameters move with equal velocities in the direction of the axis of the cylinder, the resistance of the globe will be but half so great as that of the cylinder.

For since the action of the medium upon the body is the same (by Cor. 5 of the Laws) whether the body move in a quiescent medium, or whether the particles of the medium impinge with the same velocity upon the quiescent body, let us consider the body as if it were quiescent, and see with what force it would be impelled by the moving medium. Let, therefore, ABKI represent a spherical body described from the centre C with the semi-diameter CA, and let the particles of the medium impinge with a given velocity upon that spherical body in the directions of right lines parallel to AC; and let FB be one of those right lines. In FB take LB equal to the semi-diameter CB, and draw BD touching the sphere in B. Upon KC and BD let fall the perpendiculars BE, LD; and the force with which a particle of the medium, impinging on the globe obliquely in the direction FB, would strike the globe in B, will be to the force with which the same particle, meeting the cylinder ONGQ, described about the globe with the axis ACI, would strike it perpendicularly in b, as LD to LB, or BE to BC. Again; the efficacy of this force to move the globe, according to the direction of its incidence FB or AC, is to the efficacy of the same to move the globe, according to the direction of its determination, that is, in the direction of the right line BC in which it impels the globe directly, as BE to BC. And, joining these ratios, the efficacy of a particle, falling upon the globe obliquely in the direction of the right line FB, to move the globe in the direction of its incidence, is to the efficacy of the same particle falling in the same line perpendicularly on the cylinder, to move it in the same direction, as BE2 to BC2. Therefore if in _b_E, which is perpendicular to the circular base of the cylinder NAO, and equal to the radius AC, we take _b_H equal to ; then _b_H will be to _b_E as the effect of the particle upon the globe to the effect of the particle upon the cylinder. And therefore the solid which is formed by all the right lines _b_H will be to the solid formed by all the right lines _b_E as the effect of all the particles upon the globe to the effect of all the particles upon the cylinder. But the former of these solids is a[Pg 328] paraboloid whose vertex is C, its axis CA, and latus rectum CA, and the latter solid is a cylinder circumscribing the paraboloid; and it is known that a paraboloid is half its circumscribed cylinder. Therefore the whole force of the medium upon the globe is half of the entire force of the same upon the cylinder. And therefore if the particles of the medium are at rest, and the cylinder and globe move with equal velocities, the resistance of the globe will be half the resistance of the cylinder. Q.E.D.

SCHOLIUM.

By the same method other figures may be compared together as to their resistance; and those may be found which are most apt to continue their motions in resisting mediums. As if upon the circular base CEBH from the centre O, with the radius OC, and the altitude OD, one would construct a frustum CBGF of a cone, which should meet with less resistance than any other frustum constructed with the same base and altitude, and going forwards towards D in the direction of its axis: bisect the altitude OD in Q, and produce OQ to S, so that QS may be equal to QC, and S will be the vertex of the cone whose frustum is sought.

Whence, by the bye, since the angle CSB is always acute, it follows, that, if the solid ADBE be generated by the convolution of an elliptical or oval figure ADBE about its axis AB, and the generating figure be touched by three right lines FG, GH, HI, in the points F, B, and I, so that GH shall be perpendicular to the axis in the point of contact B, and FG, HI may be inclined to GH in the angles FGB, BHI of 135 degrees: the solid arising from the convolution of the figure ADFGHIE about the same axis AB will be less resisted than the former solid; if so be that both move forward in the direction of their axis AB, and that the extremity B of each go foremost. Which Proposition I conceive may be of use in the building of ships.

If the figure DNFG be such a curve, that if, from any point thereof, as N, the perpendicular NM be let fall on the axis AB, and from the given point G there be drawn the right line GR parallel to a right line touching the figure in N, and cutting the axis produced in R, MN becomes to GR as GR3 to 4BR × GB2, the solid described by the revolution of this figure[Pg 329] about its axis AB, moving in the before-mentioned rare medium from A towards B, will be less resisted than any other circular solid whatsoever, described of the same length and breadth.

PROPOSITION XXXV. PROBLEM VII.

If a rare medium consist of very small quiescent particles of equal magnitudes, and freely disposed at equal distances from one another: to find the resistance of a globe moving uniformly forward in this medium.

CASE 1. Let a cylinder described with the same diameter and altitude be conceived to go forward with the same velocity in the direction of its axis through the same medium; and let us suppose that the particles of the medium, on which the globe or cylinder falls, fly back with as great a force of reflexion as possible. Then since the resistance of the globe (by the last Proposition) is but half the resistance of the cylinder, and since the globe is to the cylinder as 2 to 3, and since the cylinder by falling perpendicularly on the particles, and reflecting them with the utmost force, communicates to them a velocity double to its own; it follows that the cylinder, in moving forward uniformly half the length of its axis, will communicate a motion to the particles which is to the whole motion of the cylinder as the density of the medium to the density of the cylinder; and that the globe, in the time it describes one length of its diameter in moving uniformly forward, will communicate the same motion to the particles; and in the time that it describes two thirds of its diameter, will communicate a motion to the particles which is to the whole motion of the globe as the density of the medium to the density of the globe. And therefore the globe meets with a resistance, which is to the force by which its whole motion may be either taken away or generated in the time in which it describes two thirds of its diameter moving uniformly forward, as the density of the medium to the density of the globe.

CASE 2. Let us suppose that the particles of the medium incident on the globe or cylinder are not reflected; and then the cylinder falling perpendicularly on the particles will communicate its own simple velocity to them, and therefore meets a resistance but half so great as in the former case, and the globe also meets with a resistance but half so great.

CASE 3. Let us suppose the particles of the medium to fly back from the globe with a force which is neither the greatest, nor yet none at all, but with a certain mean force; then the resistance of the globe will be in the same mean ratio between the resistance in the first case and the resistance in the second. Q.E.I.

COR. 1. Hence if the globe and the particles are infinitely hard, and destitute of all elastic force, and therefore of all force of reflexion; the resistance of the globe will be to the force by which its whole motion may[Pg 330] be destroyed or generated, in the time that the globe describes four third parts of its diameter, as the density of the medium to the density of the globe.

COR. 2. The resistance of the globe, cæteris paribus, is in the duplicate ratio of the velocity.

COR. 3. The resistance of the globe, cæteris paribus, is in the duplicate ratio of the diameter.

COR. 4. The resistance of the globe is, cæteris paribus, as the density of the medium.

COR. 5. The resistance of the globe is in a ratio compounded of the duplicate ratio of the velocity, and the duplicate ratio of the diameter, and the ratio of the density of the medium.

COR. 6. The motion of the globe and its resistance may be thus expounded. Let AB be the time in which the globe may, by its resistance uniformly continued, lose its whole motion. Erect AD, BC perpendicular to AB. Let BC be that whole motion, and through the point C, the asymptotes being AD, AB, describe the hyperbola CF. Produce AB to any point E. Erect the perpendicular EF meeting the hyperbola in F. Complete the parallelogram CBEG, and draw AF meeting BC in H. Then if the globe in any time BE, with its first motion BC uniformly continued, describes in a non-resisting medium the space CBEG expounded by the area of the parallelogram, the same in a resisting medium will describe the space CBEF expounded by the area of the hyperbola; and its motion at the end of that time will be expounded by EF, the ordinate of the hyperbola, there being lost of its motion the part FG. And its resistance at the end of the same time will be expounded by the length BH, there being lost of its resistance the part CH. All these things appear by Cor. 1 and 3, Prop. V., Book II.

[Pg 331]

COR. 7. Hence if the globe in the time T by the resistance R uniformly continued lose its whole motion M, the same globe in the time t in a resisting medium, wherein the resistance R decreases in a duplicate ratio of the velocity, will lose out of its motion M the part , the part remaining; and will describe a space which is to the space described in the same time t, with the uniform motion M, as the logarithm of the number multiplied by the number 2,302585092994 is to the number , because the hyperbolic area BCFE is to the rectangle BCGE in that proportion.

SCHOLIUM.

I have exhibited in this Proposition the resistance and retardation of spherical projectiles in mediums that are not continued, and shewn that this resistance is to the force by which the whole motion of the globe may be destroyed or produced in the time in which the globe can describe two thirds of its diameter, with a velocity uniformly continued, as the density of the medium to the density of the globe, if so be the globe and the particles of the medium be perfectly elastic, and are endued with the utmost force of reflexion; and that this force, where the globe and particles of the medium are infinitely hard and void of any reflecting force, is diminished one half. But in continued mediums, as water, hot oil, and quicksilver, the globe as it passes through them does not immediately strike against all the particles of the fluid that generate the resistance made to it, but presses only the particles that lie next to it, which press the particles beyond, which press other particles, and so on; and in these mediums the resistance is diminished one other half. A globe in these extremely fluid mediums meets with a resistance that is to the force by which its whole motion may be destroyed or generated in the time wherein it can describe, with that motion uniformly continued, eight third parts of its diameter, as the density of the medium to the density of the globe. This I shall endeavour to shew in what follows.

PROPOSITION XXXVI. PROBLEM VIII.

To define the motion of water running out of a cylindrical vessel through a hole made at the bottom.

Let ACDB be a cylindrical vessel, AB the mouth of it, CD the bottom parallel to the horizon, EF a circular hole in the middle of the bottom, G the centre of the hole, and GH the axis of the cylinder perpendicular to the horizon. And suppose a cylinder of ice APQB to be of the same breadth with the cavity of the vessel, and to have the same axis, and to descend perpetually with an uniform motion, and that its parts, as soon as they touch the superficies AB, dissolve into water, and flow down by their weight into the vessel, and in their fall compose the cataract or column of water ABNFEM, passing through the hole EF, and filling up the same exactly. Let the uniform velocity of the descending ice and of the contiguous water in the circle AB be that which the water would acquire by falling through the space IH; and let IH and HG lie in the same right line; and through[Pg 332] the point I let there be drawn the right line KL parallel to the horizon and meeting the ice on both the sides thereof in K and L. Then the velocity of the water running out at the hole EF will be the same that it would acquire by falling from I through the space IG. Therefore, by Galileo's Theorems, IG will be to IH in the duplicate ratio of the velocity of the water that runs out at the hole to the velocity of the water in the circle AB, that is, in the duplicate ratio of the circle AB to the circle EF; those circles being reciprocally as the velocities of the water which in the same time and in equal quantities passes severally through each of them, and completely fills them both. We are now considering the velocity with which the water tends to the plane of the horizon. But the motion parallel to the same, by which the parts of the falling water approach to each other, is not here taken notice of; since it is neither produced by gravity, nor at all changes the motion perpendicular to the horizon which the gravity produces. We suppose, indeed, that the parts of the water cohere a little, that by their cohesion they may in falling approach to each other with motions parallel to the horizon in order to form one single cataract, and to prevent their being divided into several: but the motion parallel to the horizon arising from this cohesion does not come under our present consideration.

CASE 1. Conceive now the whole cavity in the vessel, which encompasses the falling water ABNFEM, to be full of ice, so that the water may pass through the ice as through a funnel. Then if the water pass very near to the ice only, without touching it; or, which is the same thing, if by reason of the perfect smoothness of the surface of the ice, the water, though touching it, glides over it with the utmost freedom, and without the least resistance; the water will run through the hole EF with the same velocity as before, and the whole weight of the column of water ABNFEM will be all taken up as before in forcing out the water, and the bottom of the vessel will sustain the weight of the ice encompassing that column.

Let now the ice in the vessel dissolve into water; yet will the efflux of the water remain, as to its velocity, the same as before. It will not be less, because the ice now dissolved will endeavour to descend; it will not be greater, because the ice, now become water, cannot descend without hindering the descent of other water equal to its own descent. The same force ought always to generate the same velocity in the effluent water.

But the hole at the bottom of the vessel, by reason of the oblique motions of the particles of the effluent water, must be a little greater than before. For now the particles of the water do not all of them pass through the hole perpendicularly, but, flowing down on all parts from the sides of the vessel, and converging towards the hole, pass through it with oblique motions; and in tending downwards meet in a stream whose diameter is a little smaller below the hole than at the hole itself; its diameter being to the[Pg 333] diameter of the hole as 5 to 6, or as to , very nearly, if I took the measures of those diameters right. I procured a very thin flat plate, having a hole pierced in the middle, the diameter of the circular hole being parts of an inch. And that the stream of running waters might not be accelerated in falling, and by that acceleration become narrower, I fixed this plate not to the bottom, but to the side of the vessel, so as to make the water go out in the direction of a line parallel to the horizon. Then, when the vessel was full of water, I opened the hole to let it run out; and the diameter of the stream, measured with great accuracy at the distance of about half an inch from the hole, was of an inch. Therefore the diameter of this circular hole was to the diameter of the stream very nearly as 25 to 21. So that the water in passing through the hole converges on all sides, and, after it has run out of the vessel, becomes smaller by converging in that manner, and by becoming smaller is accelerated till it comes to the distance of half an inch from the hole, and at that distance flows in a smaller stream and with greater celerity than in the hole itself, and this in the ratio of 25 × 25 to 21 × 21, or 17 to 12, very nearly; that is, in about the subduplicate ratio of 2 to 1. Now it is certain from experiments, that the quantity of water running out in a given time through a circular hole made in the bottom of a vessel is equal to the quantity, which, flowing with the aforesaid velocity, would run out in the same time through another circular hole, whose diameter is to the diameter of the former as 21 to 25. And therefore that running water in passing through the hole itself has a velocity downwards equal to that which a heavy body would acquire in falling through half the height of the stagnant water in the vessel, nearly. But, then, after it has run out, it is still accelerated by converging, till it arrives at a distance from the hole that is nearly equal to its diameter, and acquires a velocity greater than the other in about the subduplicate ratio of 2 to 1; which velocity a heavy body would nearly acquire by falling through the whole height of the stagnant water in the vessel.

Therefore in what follows let the diameter of the stream be represented by that lesser hole which we called EF. And imagine another plane VW above the hole EF, and parallel to the plane thereof, to be placed at a distance equal to the diameter of the same hole, and to be pierced through with a greater hole ST, of such a magnitude that a stream which will exactly fill the lower hole EF may pass through it; the diameter of which hole will therefore be to the diameter of the lower hole as 25 to 21, nearly. By this means the water will run perpendicularly out at the lower hole; and the quantity of the water running out will be, according to the magnitude[Pg 334] of this last hole, the same, very nearly, which the solution of the Problem requires. The space included between the two planes and the falling stream may be considered as the bottom of the vessel. But, to make the solution more simple and mathematical, it is better to take the lower plane alone for the bottom of the vessel, and to suppose that the water which flowed through the ice as through a funnel, and ran out of the vessel through the hole EF made in the lower plane, preserves its motion continually, and that the ice continues at rest. Therefore in what follows let ST be the diameter of a circular hole described from the centre Z, and let the stream run out of the vessel through that hole, when the water in the vessel is all fluid. And let EF be the diameter of the hole, which the stream, in falling through, exactly fills up, whether the water runs out of the vessel by that upper hole ST, or flows through the middle of the ice in the vessel, as through a funnel. And let the diameter of the upper hole ST be to the diameter of the lower EF as about 25 to 21, and let the perpendicular distance between the planes of the holes be equal to the diameter of the lesser hole EF. Then the velocity of the water downwards, in running out of the vessel through the hole ST, will be in that hole the same that a body may acquire by falling from half the height IZ; and the velocity of both the falling streams will be in the hole EF, the same which a body would acquire by falling from the whole height IG.

CASE 2. If the hole EF be not in the middle of the bottom of the vessel, but in some other part thereof, the water will still run out with the same velocity as before, if the magnitude of the hole be the same. For though an heavy body takes a longer time in descending to the same depth, by an oblique line, than by a perpendicular line, yet in both cases it acquires in its descent the same velocity; as Galileo has demonstrated.

CASE 3. The velocity of the water is the same when it runs out through a hole in the side of the vessel. For if the hole be small, so that the interval between the superficies AB and KL may vanish as to sense, and the stream of water horizontally issuing out may form a parabolic figure; from the latus rectum of this parabola may be collected, that the velocity of the effluent water is that which a body may acquire by falling the height IG or HG of the stagnant water in the vessel. For, by making an experiment, I found that if the height of the stagnant water above the hole were 20 inches, and the height of the hole above a plane parallel to the horizon were also 20 inches, a stream of water springing out from thence would fall upon the plane, at the distance of 37 inches, very nearly, from a perpendicular let fall upon that plane from the hole. For without resistance the stream would have fallen upon the plane at the distance of 40 inches, the latus rectum of the parabolic stream being 80 inches.

CASE 4. If the effluent water tend upward, it will still issue forth with the same velocity. For the small stream of water springing upward, ascends[Pg 335] with a perpendicular motion to GH or GI, the height of the stagnant water in the vessel; excepting in so far as its ascent is hindered a little by the resistance of the air; and therefore it springs out with the same velocity that it would acquire in falling from that height. Every particle of the stagnant water is equally pressed on all sides (by Prop. XIX., Book II), and, yielding to the pressure, tends always with an equal force, whether it descends through the hole in the bottom of the vessel, or gushes out in an horizontal direction through a hole in the side, or passes into a canal, and springs up from thence through a little hole made in the upper part of the canal. And it may not only be collected from reasoning, but is manifest also from the well-known experiments just mentioned, that the velocity with which the water runs out is the very same that is assigned in this Proposition.

CASE 5. The velocity of the effluent water is the same, whether the figure of the hole be circular, or square, or triangular, or any other figure equal to the circular; for the velocity of the effluent water does not depend upon the figure of the hole, but arises from its depth below the plane KL.

CASE 6. If the lower part of the vessel ABDC be immersed into stagnant water, and the height of the stagnant water above the bottom of the vessel be GR, the velocity with which the water that is in the vessel will run out at the hole EF into the stagnant water will be the same which the water would acquire by falling from the height IR; for the weight of all the water in the vessel that is below the superficies of the stagnant water will be sustained in equilibrio by the weight of the stagnant water, and therefore does not at all accelerate the motion of the descending water in the vessel. This case will also appear by experiments, measuring the times in which the water will run out.

COR. 1. Hence if CA the depth of the water be produced to K, so that AK may be to CK in the duplicate ratio of the area of a hole made in any part of the bottom to the area of the circle AB, the velocity of the effluent water will be equal to the velocity which the water would acquire by falling from the height KC.

COR. 2. And the force with which the whole motion of the effluent water may be generated is equal to the weight of a cylindric column of water, whose base is the hole EF, and its altitude 2GI or 2CK. For the effluent water, in the time it becomes equal to this column, may acquire, by falling by its own weight from the height GI, a velocity equal to that with which it runs out.

COR. 3. The weight of all the water in the vessel ABDC is to that part[Pg 336] of the weight which is employed in forcing out the water as the sum of the circles AB and EF to twice the circle EF. For let IO be a mean proportional between IH and IG, and the water running out at the hole EF will, in the time that a drop falling from I would describe the altitude IG, become equal to a cylinder whose base is the circle EF and its altitude 2IG, that is, to a cylinder whose base is the circle AB, and whose altitude is 2IO. For the circle EF is to the circle AB in the subduplicate ratio of the altitude IH to the altitude IG; that is, in the simple ratio of the mean proportional IO to the altitude IG. Moreover, in the time that a drop falling from I can describe the altitude IH, the water that runs out will have become equal to a cylinder whose base is the circle AB, and its altitude 2IH; and in the time that a drop falling from I through H to G describes HG, the difference of the altitudes, the effluent water, that is, the water contained within the solid ABNFEM, will be equal to the difference of the cylinders, that is, to a cylinder whose base is AB, and its altitude 2HO. And therefore all the water contained in the vessel ABDC is to the whole falling water contained in the said solid ABNFEM as HG to 2HO, that is, as HO + OG to 2HO, or IH + IO to 2IH. But the weight of all the water in the solid ABNFEM is employed in forcing out the water; and therefore the weight of all the water in the vessel is to that part of the weight that is employed in forcing out the water as IH + IO to 2IH, and therefore as the sum of the circles EF and AB to twice the circle EF.

COR. 4. And hence the weight of all the water in the vessel ABDC is to the other part of the weight which is sustained by the bottom of the vessel as the sum of the circles AB and EF to the difference of the same circles.

COR. 5. And that part of the weight which the bottom of the vessel sustains is to the other part of the weight employed in forcing out the water as the difference of the circles AB and EF to twice the lesser circle EF, or as the area of the bottom to twice the hole.

COR. 6. That part of the weight which presses upon the bottom is to the whole weight of the water perpendicularly incumbent thereon as the circle AB to the sum of the circles AB and EF, or as the circle AB to the excess of twice the circle AB above the area of the bottom. For that part of the weight which presses upon the bottom is to the weight of the whole water in the vessel as the difference of the circles AB and EF to the sum of the same circles (by Cor. 4); and the weight of the whole water in the vessel is to the weight of the whole water perpendicularly incumbent on the bottom as the circle AB to the difference of the circles AB and EF. Therefore, ex æquo perturbatè, that part of the weight which presses upon the bottom is to the weight of the whole water perpendicularly incumbent[Pg 337] thereon as the circle AB to the sum of the circles AB and EF, or the excess of twice the circle AB above the bottom.

COR. 7. If in the middle of the hole EF there be placed the little circle PQ described about the centre G, and parallel to the horizon, the weight of water which that little circle sustains is greater than the weight of a third part of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle and its height GH. For let ABNFEM be the cataract or column of falling water whose axis is GH, as above, and let all the water, whose fluidity is not requisite for the ready and quick descent of the water, be supposed to be congealed, as well round about the cataract, as above the little circle. And let PHQ be the column of water congealed above the little circle, whose vertex is H, and its altitude GH. And suppose this cataract to fall with its whole weight downwards, and not in the least to lie against or to press PHQ, but to glide freely by it without any friction, unless, perhaps, just at the very vertex of the ice, where the cataract at the beginning of its fall may tend to a concave figure. And as the congealed water AMEC, BNFD, lying round the cataract, is convex in its internal superficies AME, BNF, towards the falling cataract, so this column PHQ will be convex towards the cataract also, and will therefore be greater than a cone whose base is that little circle PQ and its altitude GH; that is, greater than a third part of a cylinder described with the same base and altitude. Now that little circle sustains the weight of this column, that is, a weight greater than the weight of the cone, or a third part of the cylinder.

COR. 8. The weight of water which the circle PQ, when very small, sustains, seems to be less than the weight of two thirds of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude HG. For, things standing as above supposed, imagine the half of a spheroid described whose base is that little circle, and its semi-axis or altitude HG. This figure will be equal to two thirds of that cylinder, and will comprehend within it the column of congealed water PHQ, the weight of which is sustained by that little circle. For though the motion of the water tends directly downwards, the external superficies of that column must yet meet the base PQ in an angle somewhat acute, because the water in its fall is perpetually accelerated, and by reason of that acceleration become narrower. Therefore, since that angle is less than a right one, this column in the lower parts thereof will lie within the hemi-spheroid. In the upper parts also it will be acute or pointed; because to make it otherwise, the horizontal motion of the water must be at the vertex infinitely more swift than its motion towards the horizon. And the less this circle PQ is, the more acute will[Pg 338] the vertex of this column be; and the circle being diminished in infinitum, the angle PHQ will be diminished in infinitum, and therefore the column will lie within the hemi-spheroid. Therefore that column is less than that hemi-spheroid, or than two-third parts of the cylinder whose base is that little circle, and its altitude GH. Now the little circle sustains a force of water equal to the weight of this column, the weight of the ambient water being employed in causing its efflux out at the hole.

COR. 9. The weight of water which the little circle PQ sustains, when it is very small, is very nearly equal to the weight of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude ; for this weight is an arithmetical mean between the weights of the cone and the hemi-spheroid above mentioned. But if that little circle be not very small, but on the contrary increased till it be equal to the hole EF, it will sustain the weight of all the water lying perpendicularly above it, that is, the weight of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude GH.

COR. 10. And (as far as I can judge) the weight which this little circle sustains is always to the weight of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude , as to , or as the circle EF to the excess of this circle above half the little circle PQ, very nearly.

LEMMA IV.

If a cylinder move uniformly forward in the direction of its length, the resistance made thereto is not at all changed by augmenting or diminishing that length; and is therefore the same with the resistance of a circle, described with the same diameter, and moving forward with the same velocity in the direction of a right line perpendicular to its plane.

For the sides are not at all opposed to the motion; and a cylinder becomes a circle when its length is diminished in infinitum.

PROPOSITION XXXVII. THEOREM XXIX.

If a cylinder move uniformly forward in a compressed, infinite, and non-elastic fluid, in the direction of its length, the resistance arising from the magnitude of its transverse section is to the force by which its whole motion may be destroyed or generated, in the time that it moves four times its length, as the density of the medium to the density of the cylinder, nearly.

For let the vessel ABDC touch the surface of stagnant water with its bottom CD, and let the water run out of this vessel into the stagnant water through the cylindric canal EFTS perpendicular to the horizon; and let the little circle PQ be placed parallel to the horizon any where in the[Pg 339] middle of the canal; and produce CA to K, so that AK may be to CK in the duplicate of the ratio, which the excess of the orifice of the canal EF above the little circle PQ bears to the circle AB. Then it is manifest (by Case 5, Case 6, and Cor. 1, Prop. XXXVI) that the velocity of the water passing through the annular space between the little circle and the sides of the vessel will be the very same which the water would acquire by falling, and in its fall describing the altitude KC or IG.

And (by Cor. 10, Prop. XXXVI) if the breadth of the vessel be infinite, so that the lineola HI may vanish, and the altitudes IG, HG become equal; the force of the water that flows down and presses upon the circle will be to the weight of a cylinder whose base is that little circle, and the altitude , as to , very nearly. For the force of the water flowing downward uniformly through the whole canal will be the same upon the little circle PQ in whatsoever part of the canal it be placed.

Let now the orifices of the canal EF, ST be closed, and let the little circle ascend in the fluid compressed on every side, and by its ascent let it oblige the water that lies above it to descend through the annular space between the little circle and the sides of the canal. Then will the velocity of the ascending little circle be to the velocity of the descending water as the difference of the circles EF and PQ is to the circle PQ; and the velocity of the ascending little circle will be to the sum of the velocities, that is, to the relative velocity of the descending water with which it passes by the little circle in its ascent, as the difference of the circles EF and PQ to the circle , or as to . Let that relative velocity be equal to the velocity with which it was shewn above that the water would pass through the annular space, if the circle were to remain unmoved, that is, to the velocity which the water would acquire by falling, and in its fall describing the altitude IG; and the force of the water upon the ascending circle will be the same as before (by Cor. 5, of the Laws of Motion); that is, the resistance of the ascending little circle will be to the weight of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude , as to , nearly. But the velocity of the little circle will be to the velocity which the water acquires by falling, and in its fall describing the altitude IG, as to .

Let the breadth of the canal be increased in infinitum; and the ratios between and , and between and , will become at last ratios of equality. And therefore the velocity of the little circle will now be the same which the water would acquire in falling, and in its fall describing the altitude IG; and the resistance will become[Pg 340] equal to the weight of a cylinder whose base is that little circle, and its altitude half the altitude IG, from which the cylinder must fall to acquire the velocity of the ascending circle; and with this velocity the cylinder in the time of its fall will describe four times its length. But the resistance of the cylinder moving forward with this velocity in the direction of its length is the same with the resistance of the little circle (by Lem. IV), and is therefore nearly equal to the force by which its motion may be generated while it describes four times its length.

If the length of the cylinder be augmented or diminished, its motion, and the time in which it describes four times its length, will be augmented or diminished in the same ratio, and therefore the force by which the motion so increased or diminished, may be destroyed or generated, will continue the same; because the time is increased or diminished in the same proportion; and therefore that force remains still equal to the resistance of the cylinder, because (by Lem. IV) that resistance will also remain the same.

If the density of the cylinder be augmented or diminished, its motion, and the force by which its motion may be generated or destroyed in the same time, will be augmented or diminished in the same ratio. Therefore the resistance of any cylinder whatsoever will be to the force by which its whole motion may be generated or destroyed, in the time during which it moves four times its length, as the density of the medium to the density of the cylinder, nearly. Q.E.D.

A fluid must be compressed to become continued; it must be continued and non-elastic, that all the pressure arising from its compression may be propagated in an instant; and so, acting equally upon all parts of the body moved, may produce no change of the resistance. The pressure arising from the motion of the body is spent in generating a motion in the parts of the fluid, and this creates the resistance. But the pressure arising from the compression of the fluid, be it ever so forcible, if it be propagated in an instant, generates no motion in the parts of a continued fluid, produces no change at all of motion therein; and therefore neither augments nor lessens the resistance. This is certain, that the action of the fluid arising from the compression cannot be stronger on the hinder parts of the body moved than on its fore parts, and therefore cannot lessen the resistance described in this proposition. And if its propagation be infinitely swifter than the motion of the body pressed, it will not be stronger on the fore parts than on the hinder parts. But that action will be infinitely swifter, and propagated in an instant, if the fluid be continued and non-elastic.

COR. 1. The resistances, made to cylinders going uniformly forward in the direction of their lengths through continued infinite mediums are in a[Pg 341] ratio compounded of the duplicate ratio of the velocities and the duplicate ratio of the diameters, and the ratio of the density of the mediums.

COR. 2. If the breadth of the canal be not infinitely increased but the cylinder go forward in the direction of its length through an included quiescent medium, its axis all the while coinciding with the axis of the canal, its resistance will be to the force by which its whole motion, in the time in which it describes four times its length, may be generated or destroyed, in a ratio compounded of the ratio of EF2 to once, and the ratio of EF2 to EF2 - PQ2 twice, and the ratio of the density of the medium to the density of the cylinder.

COR. 3. The same thing supposed, and that a length L is to the quadruple of the length of the cylinder in a ratio compounded of the ratio to once, and the ratio of to twice; the resistance of the cylinder will be to the force by which its whole motion, in the time during which it describes the length L, may be destroyed or generated, as the density of the medium to the density of the cylinder.

SCHOLIUM.

In this proposition we have investigated that resistance alone which arises from the magnitude of the transverse section of the cylinder, neglecting that part of the same which may arise from the obliquity of the motions. For as, in Case 1, of Prop. XXXVI., the obliquity of the motions with which the parts of the water in the vessel converged on every side to the hole EF hindered the efflux of the water through the hole, so, in this Proposition, the obliquity of the motions, with which the parts of the water, pressed by the antecedent extremity of the cylinder, yield to the pressure, and diverge on all sides, retards their passage through the places that lie round that antecedent extremity, toward the hinder parts of the cylinder, and causes the fluid to be moved to a greater distance; which increases the resistance, and that in the same ratio almost in which it diminished the efflux of the water out of the vessel, that is, in the duplicate ratio of 25 to 21, nearly. And as, in Case 1, of that Proposition, we made the parts of the water pass through the hole EF perpendicularly and in the greatest plenty, by supposing all the water in the vessel lying round the cataract to be frozen, and that part of the water whose motion was oblique and useless to remain without motion, so in this Proposition, that the obliquity of the motions may be taken away, and the parts of the water may give the freest passage to the cylinder, by yielding to it with the most direct and quick motion possible, so that only so much resistance may remain[Pg 342] as arises from the magnitude of the transverse section, and which is incapable of diminution, unless by diminishing the diameter of the cylinder; we must conceive those parts of the fluid whose motions are oblique and useless, and produce resistance, to be at rest among themselves at both extremities of the cylinder, and there to cohere, and be joined to the cylinder.

Let ABCD be a rectangle, and let AE and BE be two parabolic arcs, described with the axis AB, and with a latus rectum that is to the space HG, which must be described by the cylinder in falling, in order to acquire the velocity with which it moves, as HG to . Let CF and DF be two other parabolic arcs described with the axis CD, and a latus rectum quadruple of the former; and by the convolution of the figure about the axis EF let there be generated a solid, whose middle part ABDC is the cylinder we are here speaking of, and whose extreme parts ABE and CDF contain the parts of the fluid at rest among themselves, and concreted into two hard bodies, adhering to the cylinder at each end like a head and tail. Then if this solid EACFDB move in the direction of the length of its axis FE toward the parts beyond E, the resistance will be the same which we have here determined in this Proposition, nearly; that is, it will have the same ratio to the force with which the whole motion of the cylinder may be destroyed or generated, in the time that it is describing the length 4AC with that motion uniformly continued, as the density of the fluid has to the density of the cylinder, nearly. And (by Cor. 7, Prop. XXXVI) the resistance must be to this force in the ratio of 2 to 3, at the least.

LEMMA V.

If a cylinder, a sphere, and a spheroid, of equal breadths be placed successively in the middle of a cylindric canal, so that their axes may coincide with the axis of the canal, these bodies will equally hinder the passage of the water through the canal.

For the spaces lying between the sides of the canal, and the cylinder, sphere, and spheroid, through which the water passes, are equal; and the water will pass equally through equal spaces.

[Pg 343]

This is true, upon the supposition that all the water above the cylinder, sphere, or spheroid, whose fluidity is not necessary to make the passage of the water the quickest possible, is congealed, as was explained above in Cor. 7, Prop. XXXVI.

LEMMA VI.

The same supposition remaining, the fore-mentioned bodies are equally acted on by the water flowing through the canal.

This appears by Lem. V and the third Law. For the water and the bodies act upon each other mutually and equally.

LEMMA VII.

If the water be at rest in the canal, and these bodies move with equal velocity and the contrary way through the canal, their resistances will be equal among themselves.

This appears from the last Lemma, for the relative motions remain the same among themselves.

SCHOLIUM.

The case is the same of all convex and round bodies, whose axes coincide with the axis of the canal. Some difference may arise from a greater or less friction; but in these Lemmata we suppose the bodies to be perfectly smooth, and the medium to be void of all tenacity and friction; and that those parts of the fluid which by their oblique and superfluous motions may disturb, hinder, and retard the flux of the water through the canal, are at rest among themselves; being fixed like water by frost, and adhering to the fore and hinder parts of the bodies in the manner explained in the Scholium of the last Proposition; for in what follows we consider the very least resistance that round bodies described with the greatest given transverse sections can possibly meet with.

Bodies swimming upon fluids, when they move straight forward, cause the fluid to ascend at their fore parts and subside at their hinder parts, especially if they are of an obtuse figure; and thence they meet with a little more resistance than if they were acute at the head and tail. And bodies moving in elastic fluids, if they are obtuse behind and before, condense the fluid a little more at their fore parts, and relax the same at their hinder parts; and therefore meet also with a little more resistance than if they were acute at the head and tail. But in these Lemmas and Propositions we are not treating of elastic but non-elastic fluids; not of bodies floating on the surface of the fluid, but deeply immersed therein. And when the resistance of bodies in non-elastic fluids is once known, we may then augment this resistance a little in elastic fluids, as our air; and in the surfaces of stagnating fluids, as lakes and seas.

PROPOSITION XXXVIII. THEOREM XXX.

If a globe move uniformly forward in a compressed, infinite, and non-elastic fluid, its resistance is to the force by which its whole motion[Pg 344] may be destroyed or generated, in the time that it describes eight third parts of its diameter, as the density of the fluid to the density of the globe, very nearly.

For the globe is to its circumscribed cylinder as two to three; and therefore the force which can destroy all the motion of the cylinder, while the same cylinder is describing the length of four of its diameters, will destroy all the motion of the globe, while the globe is describing two thirds of this length, that is, eight third parts of its own diameter. Now the resistance of the cylinder is to this force very nearly as the density of the fluid to the density of the cylinder or globe (by Prop. XXXVII), and the resistance of the globe is equal to the resistance of the cylinder (by Lem. V, VI, and VII). Q.E.D.

COR. 1. The resistances of globes in infinite compressed mediums are in a ratio compounded of the duplicate ratio of the velocity, and the duplicate ratio of the diameter, and the ratio of the density of the mediums.

COR. 2. The greatest velocity, with which a globe can descend by its comparative weight through a resisting fluid, is the same which it may acquire by falling with the same weight, and without any resistance, and in its fall describing a space that is, to four third parts of its diameter as the density of the globe to the density of the fluid. For the globe in the time of its fall, moving with the velocity acquired in falling, will describe a space that will be to eight third parts of its diameter as the density of the globe to the density of the fluid; and the force of its weight which generates this motion will be to the force that can generate the same motion, in the time that the globe describes eight third parts of its diameter, with the same velocity as the density of the fluid to the density of the globe; and therefore (by this Proposition) the force of weight will be equal to the force of resistance, and therefore cannot accelerate the globe.

COR. 3. If there be given both the density of the globe and its velocity at the beginning of the motion, and the density of the compressed quiescent fluid in which the globe moves, there is given at any time both the velocity of the globe and its resistance, and the space described by it (by Cor. 7, Prop. XXXV).

COR. 4. A globe moving in a compressed quiescent fluid of the same density with itself will lose half its motion before it can describe the length of two of its diameters (by the same Cor. 7).

PROPOSITION XXXIX. THEOREM XXXI.

If a globe move uniformly forward through a fluid inclosed and compressed in a cylindric canal, its resistance is to the force by which its whole motion may be generated or destroyed, in the time in which it describes eight third parts of its diameter, in a ratio compounded of[Pg 345] the ratio of the orifice of the canal to the excess of that orifice above half the greatest circle of the globe; and the duplicate ratio of the orifice of the canal to the excess of that orifice above the greatest circle of the globe; and the ratio of the density of the fluid to the density of the globe, nearly.

This appears by Cor. 2, Prop. XXXVII, and the demonstration proceeds in the same manner as in the foregoing Proposition.

SCHOLIUM.

In the last two Propositions we suppose (as was done before in Lem. V) that all the water which precedes the globe, and whose fluidity increases the resistance of the same, is congealed. Now if that water becomes fluid, it will somewhat increase the resistance. But in these Propositions that increase is so small, that it may be neglected, because the convex superficies of the globe produces the very same effect almost as the congelation of the water.

PROPOSITION XL. PROBLEM IX.

To find by phenomena the resistance of a globe moving through a perfectly fluid compressed medium.

Let A be the weight of the globe in vacuo, B its weight in the resisting medium, D the diameter of the globe, F a space which is to as the density of the globe to the density of the medium, that is, as A to A - B, G the time in which the globe falling with the weight B without resistance describes the space F, and H the velocity which the body acquires by that fall. Then H will be the greatest velocity with which the globe can possibly descend with the weight B in the resisting medium, by Cor. 2, Prop. XXXVIII; and the resistance which the globe meets with, when descending with that velocity, will be equal to its weight B; and the resistance it meets with in any other velocity will be to the weight B in the duplicate ratio of that velocity to the greatest velocity H, by Cor. 1, Prop. XXXVIII.

This is the resistance that arises from the inactivity of the matter of the fluid. That resistance which arises from the elasticity, tenacity, and friction of its parts, may be thus investigated.

Let the globe be let fall so that it may descend in the fluid by the weight B; and let P be the time of falling, and let that time be expressed in seconds, if the time G be given in seconds. Find the absolute number N agreeing to the logarithm , and let L be the logarithm of the number ; and the velocity acquired in falling will be[Pg 346] , and the height described will be . If the fluid be of a sufficient depth, we may neglect the term ; and will be the altitude described, nearly. These things appear by Prop. IX, Book II, and its Corollaries, and are true upon this supposition, that the globe meets with no other resistance but that which arises from the inactivity of matter. Now if it really meet with any resistance of another kind, the descent will be slower, and from the quantity of that retardation will be known the quantity of this new resistance.

That the velocity and descent of a body falling in a fluid might more easily be known, I have composed the following table; the first column of which denotes the times of descent; the second shews the velocities acquired in falling, the greatest velocity being 100000000; the third exhibits the spaces described by falling in those times, 2F being the space which the body describes in the time G with the greatest velocity; and the fourth gives the spaces described with the greatest velocity in the same times. The numbers in the fourth column are , and by subducting the number , are found the numbers in the third column; and these numbers must be multiplied by the space F to obtain the spaces described in falling. A fifth column is added to all these, containing the spaces described in the same times by a body falling in vacuo with the force of B its comparative weight.

[Pg 347]

SCHOLIUM.

In order to investigate the resistances of fluids from experiments, I procured a square wooden vessel, whose length and breadth on the inside was 9 inches English measure, and its depth 9 feet ; this I filled with rain-water: and having provided globes made up of wax, and lead included therein, I noted the times of the descents of these globes, the height through which they descended being 112 inches. A solid cubic foot of English measure contains 76 pounds troy weight of rain water; and a solid inch contains ounces troy weight, or grains; and a globe of water of one inch in diameter contains 132,645 grains in air, or 132,8 grains in vacuo; and any other globe will be as the excess of its weight in vacuo above its weight in water.

EXPER. 1. A globe whose weight was grains in air, and 77 grains in water, described the whole height of 112 inches in 4 seconds. And, upon repeating the experiment, the globe spent again the very same time of 4 seconds in falling.

[Pg 348]

The weight of this globe in vacuo is grains; and the excess of this weight above the weight of the globe in water is grains. Hence the diameter of the globe appears to be 0,84224 parts of an inch. Then it will be, as that excess to the weight of the globe in vacuo, so is the density of the water to the density of the globe; and so is parts of the diameter of the globe (viz. 2,24597 inches) to the space 2F, which will be therefore 4,4256 inches. Now a globe falling in vacuo with its whole weight of grains in one second of time will describe inches; and falling in water in the same time with the weight of 77 grains without resistance, will describe 95,219 inches; and in the time G, which is to one second of time in the subduplicate ratio of the space F, or of 2,2128 inches to 95,219 inches, will describe 2,2128 inches, and will acquire the greatest velocity H with which it is capable of descending in water. Therefore the time G is 0″,15244. And in this time G, with that greatest velocity H, the globe will describe the space 2F, which is 4,4256 inches; and therefore in 4 seconds will describe a space of 116,1245 inches. Subduct the space 1,3862944F, or 3,0676 inches, and there will remain a space of 113,0569 inches, which the globe falling through water in a very wide vessel will describe in 4 seconds. But this space, by reason of the narrowness of the wooden vessel before mentioned, ought to be diminished in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the orifice of the vessel to the excess of this orifice above half a great circle of the globe, and of the simple ratio of the same orifice to its excess above a great circle of the globe, that is, in a ratio of 1 to 0,9914. This done, we have a space of 112,08 inches, which a globe falling through the water in this wooden vessel in 4 seconds of time ought nearly to describe by this theory; but it described 112 inches by the experiment.

EXPER. 2. Three equal globes, whose weights were severally grains in air, and grains in water, were let fall successively; and every one fell through the water in 15 seconds of time, describing in its fall a height of 112 inches.

By computation, the weight of each globe in vacuo is grains; the excess of this weight above the weight in water is 71 grains ; the diameter of the globe 0,81296 of an inch; parts of this diameter 2,16789 inches; the space 2F is 2,3217 inches; the space which a globe of grains in weight would describe in one second without resistance, 12,808 inches, and the time . Therefore the globe, with the greatest velocity it is capable of receiving from a weight of grains in its descent through water, will describe in the time 0'',301056 the space of 2,3217 inches; and in 15 seconds the space 115,678 inches. Subduct the space 1,3862944F, or 1,609 inches, and there remains the space 114,069 inches, which therefore the falling globe ought to describe in the same time, if the vessel were very wide. But because our vessel was narrow, the space ought to be diminished by about 0,895 of an inch. And so the space will remain 113,174 inches, which a globe falling in this vessel ought nearly to describe in 15 seconds, by the theory. But by the experiment it described 112 inches. The difference is not sensible.

EXPER. 3. Three equal globes, whose weights were severally 121 grains in air, and 1 grain in water, were successively let fall; and they fell through the water in the times 46″, 47″, and 50″, describing a height of 112 inches.

By the theory, these globes ought to have fallen in about 40″. Now whether their falling more slowly were occasioned from hence, that in slow motions the resistance arising from the force of inactivity does really bear a less proportion to the resistance arising from other causes; or whether it is to be attributed to little bubbles that might chance to stick to the globes, or to the rarefaction of the wax by the warmth of the weather, or of the hand that let them fall; or, lastly, whether it proceeded from some insensible errors in weighing the globes in the water, I am not certain. Therefore the weight of the globe in water should be of several grains, that the experiment may be certain, and to be depended on.

EXPER. 4. I began the foregoing experiments to investigate the resistances of fluids, before I was acquainted with the theory laid down in the Propositions immediately preceding. Afterward, in order to examine the theory after it was discovered, I procured a wooden vessel, whose breadth on the inside was inches, and its depth 15 feet and . Then I made four globes of wax, with lead included, each of which weighed grains in air, and grains in water. These I let fall, measuring the times of their falling in the water with a pendulum oscillating to half seconds. The globes were cold, and had remained so some time, both when they were[Pg 349] weighed and when they were let fall; because warmth rarefies the wax, and by rarefying it diminishes the weight of the globe in the water; and wax, when rarefied, is not instantly reduced by cold to its former density. Before they were let fall, they were totally immersed under water, lest, by the weight of any part of them that might chance to be above the water, their descent should be accelerated in its beginning. Then, when after their immersion they were perfectly at rest, they were let go with the greatest care, that they might not receive any impulse from the hand that let them down. And they fell successively in the times of , , 50, and 51 oscillations, describing a height of 15 feet and 2 inches. But the weather was now a little colder than when the globes were weighed, and therefore I repeated the experiment another day; and then the globes fell in the times of 49, , 50, and 53; and at a third trial in the times of , 50, 51, and 53 oscillations. And by making the experiment several times over, I found that the globes fell mostly in the times of and 50 oscillations. When they fell slower, I suspect them to have been retarded by striking against the sides of the vessel.

Now, computing from the theory, the weight of the globe in vacuo is grains; the excess of this weight above the weight of the globe in water grains; the diameter of the globe 0,99868 of an inch; parts of the diameter 2,66315 inches; the space 2F 2,8066 inches; the space which a globe weighing grains falling without resistance describes in a second of time 9,88164 inches; and the time . Therefore the globe with the greatest velocity with which it is capable of descending through the water by the force of a weight of grains, will in the time 0″,376843 describe a space of 2,8066 inches, and in one second of time a space of 7,44766 inches, and in the time 25″, or in 50 oscillations, the space 186,1915 inches. Subduct the space 1,386294F, or 1,9454 inches, and there will remain the space 184,2461 inches which the globe will describe in that time in a very wide vessel. Because our vessel was narrow, let this space be diminished in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the orifice of the vessel to the excess of this orifice above half a great circle of the globe, and of the simple ratio of the same orifice to its excess above a great circle of the globe; and we shall have the space of 181,86 inches, which the globe ought by the theory to describe in this vessel in the time of 50 oscillations, nearly. But it described the space of 182 inches, by experiment, in or 50 oscillations.

EXPER. 5. Four globes weighing grains in air, and grains in water, being let fall several times, fell in the times of , 29, , and 30, and sometimes of 31, 32, and 33 oscillations, describing a height of 15 feet and 2 inches.

They ought by the theory to have fallen in the time of 29 oscillations, nearly.

[Pg 350]

EXPER. 6. Five globes, weighing grains in air, and in water, being several times let fall, fell in the times of 15, , 16, 17, and 18 oscillations, describing a height of 15 feet and 2 inches.

By the theory they ought to have fallen in the time of 15 oscillations, nearly.

EXPER. 7. Four globes, weighing grains in air, and grains in water, being let fall several times, fell in the times of , 30, , 31, 32, and 33 oscillations, describing a height of 15 feet and 1 inch and .

By the theory they ought to have fallen in the time of 28 oscillations, nearly.

In searching for the cause that occasioned these globes of the same weight and magnitude to fall, some swifter and some slower, I hit upon this; that the globes, when they were first let go and began to fall, oscillated about their centres; that side which chanced to be the heavier descending first, and producing an oscillating motion. Now by oscillating thus, the globe communicates a greater motion to the water than if it descended without any oscillations; and by this communication loses part of its own motion with which it should descend; and therefore as this oscillation is greater or less, it will be more or less retarded. Besides, the globe always recedes from that side of itself which is descending in the oscillation, and by so receding comes nearer to the sides of the vessel, so as even to strike against them sometimes. And the heavier the globes are, the stronger this oscillation is; and the greater they are, the more is the water agitated by it. Therefore to diminish this oscillation of the globes, I made new ones of lead and wax, sticking the lead in one side of the globe very near its surface; and I let fall the globe in such a manner, that, as near as possible, the heavier side might be lowest at the beginning of the descent. By this means the oscillations became much less than before, and the times in which the globes fell were not so unequal: as in the following experiments.

EXPER. 8. Four globes weighing 139 grains in air, and in water, were let fall several times, and fell mostly in the time of 51 oscillations, never in more than 52, or in fewer than 50, describing a height of 182 inches.

By the theory they ought to fall in about the time of 52 oscillations.

EXPER. 9. Four globes weighing grains in air, and in water, being several times let fall, fell in never fewer than 12, and never more than 13 oscillations, describing a height of 182 inches.

These globes by the theory ought to have fallen in the time of oscillations, nearly.

EXPER. 10. Four globes, weighing 384 grains in air, and in water, being let fall several times, fell in the times of , 18, , and 19 oscillations, describing a height of inches. And when they fell in the time[Pg 351] of 19 oscillations, I sometimes heard them hit against the sides of the vessel before they reached the bottom.

By the theory they ought to have fallen in the time of oscillations, nearly.

EXPER. 11. Three equal globes, weighing 48 grains in the air, and ; in water, being several times let fall, fell in the times of , 44, , 45, and 46 oscillations, and mostly in 44 and 45. describing a height of inches, nearly.

By the theory they ought to have fallen in the time of 46 oscillations and , nearly.

EXPER. 12. Three equal globes, weighing 141 grains in air, and in water, being let fall several times, fell in the times of 61, 62, 63, 64, and 65 oscillations, describing a space of 182 inches.

And by the theory they ought to have fallen in oscillations nearly.

From these experiments it is manifest, that when the globes fell slowly, as in the second, fourth, fifth, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth experiments, the times of falling are rightly exhibited by the theory; but when the globes fell more swiftly, as in the sixth, ninth, and tenth experiments, the resistance was somewhat greater than in the duplicate ratio of the velocity. For the globes in falling oscillate a little; and this oscillation, in those globes that are light and fall slowly, soon ceases by the weakness of the motion; but in greater and heavier globes, the motion being strong, it continues longer, and is not to be checked by the ambient water till after several oscillations. Besides, the more swiftly the globes move, the less are they pressed by the fluid at their hinder parts; and if the velocity be perpetually increased, they will at last leave an empty space behind them, unless the compression of the fluid be increased at the same time. For the compression of the fluid ought to be increased (by Prop. XXXII and XXXIII)in the duplicate ratio of the velocity, in order to preserve the resistance in the same duplicate ratio. But because this is not done, the globes that move swiftly are not so much pressed at their hinder parts as the others; and by the defect of this pressure it comes to pass that their resistance is a little greater than in a duplicate ratio of their velocity.

So that the theory agrees with the phænomena of bodies falling in water. It remains that we examine the phænomena of bodies falling in air.

EXPER. 13. From the top of St. Paul's Church in London, in June 1710, there were let fall together two glass globes, one full of quicksilver, the other of air; and in their fall they described a height of 220 English feet. A wooden table was suspended upon iron hinges on one side, and the other side of the same was supported by a wooden pin. The two globes lying upon this table were let fall together by pulling out the pin by means of an iron wire reaching from thence quite down to the ground; so[Pg 352] that, the pin being removed, the table, which had then no support but the iron hinges, fell downward, and turning round upon the hinges, gave leave to the globes to drop off from it. At the same instant, with the same pull of the iron wire that took out the pin, a pendulum oscillating to seconds was let go, and began to oscillate. The diameters and weights of the globes, and their times of falling, are exhibited in the following table.

But the times observed must be corrected; for the globes of mercury (by Galileo's theory), in 4 seconds of time, will describe 257 English feet, and 220 feet in only 3″ 42‴. So that the wooden table, when the pin was taken out, did not turn upon its hinges so quickly as it ought to have done; and the slowness of that revolution hindered the descent of the globes at the beginning. For the globes lay about the middle of the table, and indeed were rather nearer to the axis upon which it turned than to the pin. And hence the times of falling were prolonged about 18‴; and therefore ought to be corrected by subducting that excess, especially in the larger globes, which, by reason of the largeness of their diameters, lay longer upon the revolving table than the others. This being done, the times in which the six larger globes fell will come forth 8″ 12‴, 7″ 42‴, 7″ 42‴, 7″ 57‴, 8″ 12‴ and 7″ 42‴.

Therefore the fifth in order among the globes that were full of air being 5 inches in diameter, and 483 grains in weight, fell in 8″ 12‴, describing a space of 220 feet. The weight of a bulk of water equal to this globe is 16600 grains; and the weight of an equal bulk of air is grains, or grains; and therefore the weight of the globe in vacuo is grains; and this weight is to the weight of a bulk of air equal to the globe as to ; and so is 2F to of the diameter of the globe, that is, to inches. Whence 2F becomes 28 feet 11 inches. A globe, falling in vacuo with its whole weight of grains, will in one second of time describe inches as above; and with the weight of 483 grains will describe 185,905 inches; and with that weight 483 grains in vacuo will describe the space F, or 14 feet inches, in the time of 57‴ 58⁗, and acquire the greatest velocity it is capable of descending with in the air. With this velocity the globe in 8″ 12‴ of time will describe 245 feet and inches. Subduct 1,3863F, or 20 feet and an inch, and there remain 225 feet 5 inches. This space, therefore, the falling globe ought by the[Pg 353] theory to describe in 8″ 12‴. But by the experiment it described a space of 220 feet. The difference is insensible.

By like calculations applied to the other globes full of air, I composed the following table.

EXPER. 14. Anno 1719, in the month of July, Dr. Desaguliers made some experiments of this kind again, by forming hogs' bladders into spherical orbs; which was done by means of a concave wooden sphere, which the bladders, being wetted well first, were put into. After that being blown full of air, they were obliged to fill up the spherical cavity that contained them; and then, when dry, were taken out. These were let fall from the lantern on the top of the cupola of the same church, namely, from a height of 272 feet; and at the same moment of time there was let fall a leaden globe, whose weight was about 2 pounds troy weight. And in the mean time some persons standing in the upper part of the church where the globes were let fall observed the whole times of falling; and others standing on the ground observed the differences of the times between the fall of the leaden weight and the fall of the bladder. The times were measured by pendulums oscillating to half seconds. And one of those that stood upon the ground had a machine vibrating four times in one second; and another had another machine accurately made with a pendulum vibrating four times in a second also. One of those also who stood at the top of the church had a like machine; and these instruments were so contrived, that their motions could be stopped or renewed at pleasure. Now the leaden globe fell in about four seconds and of time; and from the addition of this time to the difference of time above spoken of, was collected the whole time in which the bladder was falling. The times which the five bladders spent in falling, after the leaden globe had reached the ground, were, the first time, , , , , and ; and the second time, , , 14″, 19″, and . Add to these , the time in which the leaden globe was falling, and the whole times in which the five bladders fell were, the first time, 19″, 17″, , 22″, and ; and the second time, , , , , and 21″. The times observed at the top of the church were, the first time, , , ″, ″, and ; and the second time, 19″, , , 24″, and . But the bladders did not always fall directly down, but sometimes fluttered a little in the air, and waved to and fro, as[Pg 354] they were descending. And by these motions the times of their falling were prolonged, and increased by half a second sometimes, and sometimes by a whole second. The second and fourth bladder fell most directly the first time, and the first and third the second time. The fifth bladder was wrinkled, and by its wrinkles was a little retarded. I found their diameters by their circumferences measured with a very fine thread wound about them twice. In the following table I have compared the experiments with the theory; making the density of air to be to the density of rain-water as 1 to 860, and computing the spaces which by the theory the globes ought to describe in falling.

Our theory, therefore, exhibits rightly, within a very little, all the resistance that globes moving either in air or in water meet with; which appears to be proportional to the densities of the fluids in globes of equal velocities and magnitudes.

In the Scholium subjoined to the sixth Section, we shewed, by experiments of pendulums, that the resistances of equal and equally swift globes moving in air, water, and quicksilver, are as the densities of the fluids. We here prove the same more accurately by experiments of bodies falling in air and water. For pendulums at each oscillation excite a motion in the fluid always contrary to the motion of the pendulum in its return; and the resistance arising from this motion, as also the resistance of the thread by which the pendulum is suspended, makes the whole resistance of a pendulum greater than the resistance deduced from the experiments of falling bodies. For by the experiments of pendulums described in that Scholium, a globe of the same density as water in describing the length of its semi-diameter in air would lose the part of its motion. But by the theory delivered in this seventh Section, and confirmed by experiments of falling bodies, the same globe in describing the same length would lose only a part of its motion equal to , supposing the density of water to be to the density of air as 860 to 1. Therefore the resistances were found greater by the experiments of pendulums (for the reasons just mentioned) than by the experiments of falling globes; and that in the ratio of about 4 to 3. But yet since the resistances of pendulums oscillating in air, water, and quicksilver, are alike increased by like causes, the proportion of the resistances in these mediums will be rightly enough exhibited by the[Pg 355] experiments of pendulums, as well as by the experiments of falling bodies. And from all this it may be concluded, that the resistances of bodies, moving in any fluids whatsoever, though of the most extreme fluidity, are, cæteris paribus, as the densities of the fluids.

These things being thus established, we may now determine what part of its motion any globe projected in any fluid whatsoever would nearly lose in a given time. Let D be the diameter of the globe, and V its velocity at the beginning of its motion, and T the time in which a globe with the velocity V can describe in vacuo a space that is, to the space as the density of the globe to the density of the fluid; and the globe projected in that fluid will, in any other time t lose the part , the part remaining; and will describe a space, which will be to that described in the same time in vacuo with the uniform velocity V, as the logarithm of the number multiplied by the number 2,302585093 is to the number , by Cor. 7, Prop. XXXV. In slow motions the resistance may be a little less, because the figure of a globe is more adapted to motion than the figure of a cylinder described with the same diameter. In swift motions the resistance may be a little greater, because the elasticity and compression of the fluid do not increase in the duplicate ratio of the velocity. But these little niceties I take no notice of.

[Pg 356]

And though air, water, quicksilver, and the like fluids, by the division of their parts in infinitum, should be subtilized, and become mediums infinitely fluid, nevertheless, the resistance they would make to projected globes would be the same. For the resistance considered in the preceding Propositions arises from the inactivity of the matter; and the inactivity of matter is essential to bodies, and always proportional to the quantity of matter. By the division of the parts of the fluid the resistance arising from the tenacity and friction of the parts may be indeed diminished; but the quantity of matter will not be at all diminished by this division; and if the quantity of matter be the same, its force of inactivity will be the same; and therefore the resistance here spoken of will be the same, as being always proportional to that force. To diminish this resistance, the quantity of matter in the spaces through which the bodies move must be diminished; and therefore the celestial spaces, through which the globes of the planets and comets are perpetually passing towards all parts, with the utmost freedom, and without the least sensible diminution of their motion, must be utterly void of any corporeal fluid, excepting, perhaps, some extremely rare vapours and the rays of light.

Projectiles excite a motion in fluids as they pass through them, and this motion arises from the excess of the pressure of the fluid at the fore parts of the projectile above the pressure of the same at the hinder parts; and cannot be less in mediums infinitely fluid than it is in air, water, and quicksilver, in proportion to the density of matter in each. Now this excess of pressure does, in proportion to its quantity, not only excite a motion in the fluid, but also acts upon the projectile so as to retard its motion; and therefore the resistance in every fluid is as the motion excited by the projectile in the fluid; and cannot be less in the most subtile æther in proportion to the density of that æther, than it is in air, water, and quicksilver, in proportion to the densities of those fluids.

SECTION VIII.

Of motion propagated through fluids.

PROPOSITION XLI. THEOREM XXXII.

A pressure is not propagated through a fluid in rectilinear directions unless where the particles of the fluid lie in a right line.

If the particles a, b, c, d, e, lie in a right line, the pressure may be indeed directly propagated from a to e; but then the particle e will urge the obliquely posited particles f and g obliquely, and those particles f and g will not sustain this pressure, unless they be supported by the particles h and k lying beyond them; but the particles that support them are also pressed by them; and those particles cannot sustain that pressure, without being supported by, and pressing upon, those particles that lie still farther, as l and m, and so on in infinitum. Therefore the pressure, as soon as it is propagated to particles that lie out of right lines, begins to deflect towards one hand and the other, and will be propagated obliquely in infinitum; and after it has begun to be propagated obliquely, if it reaches more distant particles lying out of the right line, it will deflect again on each hand and this it will do as often as it lights on particles that do not lie exactly in a right line. Q.E.D.

COR. If any part of a pressure, propagated through a fluid from a given point, be intercepted by any obstacle, the remaining part, which is not intercepted, will deflect into the spaces behind the obstacle. This may be demonstrated also after the following manner. Let a pressure be propagated from the point A towards any part, and, if it be possible, in rectilinear[Pg 357] directions; and the obstacle NBCK being perforated in BC, let all the pressure be intercepted but the coniform part APQ passing through the circular hole BC. Let the cone APQ be divided into frustums by the transverse planes, de, fg, hi. Then while the cone ABC, propagating the pressure, urges the conic frustum degf beyond it on the superficies de, and this frustum urges the next frustum fgih on the superficies fg, and that frustum urges a third frustum, and so in infinitum; it is manifest (by the third Law) that the first frustum defg is, by the re-action of the second frustum fghi, as much urged and pressed on the superficies fg, as it urges and presses that second frustum. Therefore the frustum degf is compressed on both sides, that is, between the cone A_de_ and the frustum fhig; and therefore (by Case 6, Prop. XIX) cannot preserve its figure, unless it be compressed with the same force on all sides. Therefore with the same force with which it is pressed on the superficies de, fg, it will endeavour to break forth at the sides df, eg; and there (being not in the least tenacious or hard, but perfectly fluid) it will run out, expanding itself, unless there be an ambient fluid opposing that endeavour. Therefore, by the effort it makes to run out, it will press the ambient fluid, at its sides df, eg, with the same force that it does the frustum fghi; and therefore, the pressure will be propagated as much from the sides df, eg, into the spaces NO, KL this way and that way, as it is propagated from the superficies fg towards PQ. Q.E.D.

PROPOSITION XLII. THEOREM XXXIII.

All motion propagated through a fluid diverges from a rectilinear progress into the unmoved spaces.

CASE 1. Let a motion be propagated from the point A through the hole BC, and, if it be possible, let it proceed in the conic space BCQP according to right lines diverging from the point A. And let us first suppose this motion to be that of waves in the surface of standing water; and let de, fg, hi, kl, &c., be the tops of the several waves, divided from each other by as many intermediate valleys or hollows. Then, because the water in the[Pg 358] ridges of the waves is higher than in the unmoved parts of the fluid KL, NO, it will run down from off the tops of those ridges, e, g, i, l, &c., d, f, h, k, &c., this way and that way towards KL and NO; and because the water is more depressed in the hollows of the waves than in the unmoved parts of the fluid KL, NO, it will run down into those hollows out of these unmoved parts. By the first deflux the ridges of the waves will dilate themselves this way and that way, and be propagated towards KL and NO. And because the motion of the waves from A towards PQ is carried on by a continual deflux from the ridges of the waves into the hollows next to them, and therefore cannot be swifter than in proportion to the celerity of the descent; and the descent of the water on each side towards KL and NO must be performed with the same velocity; it follows that the dilatation of the waves on each side towards KL and NO will be propagated with the same velocity as the waves themselves go forward with directly from A to PQ. And therefore the whole space this way and that way towards KL and NO will be filled by the dilated waves rfgr, shis, tklt, vmnv, &c. Q.E.D. That these things are so, any one may find by making the experiment in still water.

CASE 2. Let us suppose that de, fg, hi, kl, mn, represent pulses successively propagated from the point A through an elastic medium. Conceive the pulses to be propagated by successive condensations and rarefactions of the medium, so that the densest part of every pulse may occupy a spherical superficies described about the centre A, and that equal intervals intervene between the successive pulses. Let the lines de, fg, hi, kl, &c., represent the densest parts of the pulses, propagated through the hole BC; and because the medium is denser there than in the spaces on either side towards KL and NO, it will dilate itself as well towards those spaces KL, NO, on each hand, as towards the rare intervals between the pulses; and thence the medium, becoming always more rare next the intervals, and more dense next the pulses, will partake of their motion. And because the progressive motion of the pulses arises from the perpetual relaxation of the denser parts towards the antecedent rare intervals; and since the pulses will relax themselves on each hand towards the quiescent parts of the medium KL, NO, with very near the same celerity; therefore the pulses will dilate themselves on all sides into the unmoved parts KL, NO, with almost the same celerity with which they are propagated directly from the centre A; and therefore will fill up the whole space KLON. Q.E.D. And we find the same by experience also in sounds which are heard through a mountain interposed; and, if they come into a chamber through the window, dilate themselves into all the parts of the room, and are heard in every corner; and not as reflected from the opposite walls, but directly propagated from the window, as far as our sense can judge.

CASE 3. Let us suppose, lastly, that a motion of any kind is propagated[Pg 359] from A through the hole BC. Then since the cause of this propagation is that the parts of the medium that are near the centre A disturb and agitate those which lie farther from it; and since the parts which are urged are fluid, and therefore recede every way towards those spaces where they are less pressed, they will by consequence recede towards all the parts of the quiescent medium; as well to the parts on each hand, as KL and NO, as to those right before, as PQ; and by this means all the motion, as soon as it has passed through the hole BC, will begin to dilate itself, and from thence, as from its principle and centre, will be propagated directly every way. Q.E.D.

PROPOSITION XLIII. THEOREM XXXIV.

Every tremulous body in an elastic medium propagates the motion of the pulses on every side right forward; but in a non-elastic medium excites a circular motion.

CASE. 1. The parts of the tremulous body, alternately going and returning, do in going urge and drive before them those parts of the medium that lie nearest, and by that impulse compress and condense them; and in returning suffer those compressed parts to recede again, and expand themselves. Therefore the parts of the medium that lie nearest to the tremulous body move to and fro by turns, in like manner as the parts of the tremulous body itself do; and for the same cause that the parts of this body agitate these parts of the medium, these parts, being agitated by like tremors, will in their turn agitate others next to themselves; and these others, agitated in like manner, will agitate those that lie beyond them, and so on in infinitum. And in the same manner as the first parts of the medium were condensed in going, and relaxed in returning, so will the other parts be condensed every time they go, and expand themselves every time they return. And therefore they will not be all going and all returning at the same instant (for in that case they would always preserve determined distances from each other, and there could be no alternate condensation and rarefaction); but since, in the places where they are condensed, they approach to, and, in the places where they are rarefied, recede from each other, therefore some of them will be going while others are returning; and so on in infinitum. The parts so going, and in their going condensed, are pulses, by reason of the progressive motion with which they strike obstacles in their way; and therefore the successive pulses produced by a tremulous body will be propagated in rectilinear directions; and that at nearly equal distances from each other, because of the equal intervals of time in which the body, by its several tremors produces the several pulses. And though the parts of the tremulous body go and return in some certain and determinate direction, yet the pulses propagated from thence through the medium will dilate themselves towards the sides, by the foregoing Proposition; and[Pg 360] will be propagated on all sides from that tremulous body, as from a common centre, in superficies nearly spherical and concentrical. An example of this we have in waves excited by shaking a finger in water, which proceed not only forward and backward agreeably to the motion of the finger, but spread themselves in the manner of concentrical circles all round the finger, and are propagated on every side. For the gravity of the water supplies the place of elastic force.

CASE 2. If the medium be not elastic, then, because its parts cannot be condensed by the pressure arising from the vibrating parts of the tremulous body, the motion will be propagated in an instant towards the parts where the medium yields most easily, that is, to the parts which the tremulous body would otherwise leave vacuous behind it. The case is the same with that of a body projected in any medium whatever. A medium yielding to projectiles does not recede in infinitum, but with a circular motion comes round to the spaces which the body leaves behind it. Therefore as often as a tremulous body tends to any part, the medium yielding to it comes round in a circle to the parts which the body leaves; and as often as the body returns to the first place, the medium will be driven from the place it came round to, and return to its original place. And though the tremulous body be not firm and hard, but every way flexible, yet if it continue of a given magnitude, since it cannot impel the medium by its tremors any where without yielding to it somewhere else, the medium receding from the parts of the body where it is pressed will always come round in a circle to the parts that yield to it. Q.E.D.

COR. It is a mistake, therefore, to think, as some have done, that the agitation of the parts of flame conduces to the propagation of a pressure in rectilinear directions through an ambient medium. A pressure of that kind must be derived not from the agitation only of the parts of flame, but from the dilatation of the whole.

PROPOSITION XLIV. THEOREM XXXV.

If water ascend and descend alternately in the erected legs KL, MN, of a canal or pipe; and a pendulum be constructed whose length between the point of suspension and the centre of oscillation is equal to half the length of the water in the canal; I say, that the water will ascend and descend in the same times in which the pendulum oscillates.

I measure the length of the water along the axes of the canal and its legs, and make it equal to the sum of those axes; and take no notice of the resistance of the water arising from its attrition by the sides of the canal. Let, therefore, AB, CD, represent the mean height of the water in both legs; and when the water in the leg KL ascends to the height EF, the water will descend in the leg MN to the height GH. Let P be a pendulous[Pg 361] body, VP the thread, V the point of suspension, RPQS the cycloid which the pendulum describes, P its lowest point, PQ an arc equal to the height AE. The force with which the motion of the water is accelerated and retarded alternately is the excess of the weight of the water in one leg above the weight in the other; and, therefore, when the water in the leg KL ascends to EF, and in the other leg descends to GH, that force is double the weight of the water EABF, and therefore is to the weight of the whole water as AE or PQ to VP or PR. The force also with which the body P is accelerated or retarded in any place, as Q, of a cycloid, is (by Cor. Prop. LI) to its whole weight as its distance PQ from the lowest place P to the length PR of the cycloid. Therefore the motive forces of the water and pendulum, describing the equal spaces AE, PQ, are as the weights to be moved; and therefore if the water and pendulum are quiescent at first, those forces will move them in equal times, and will cause them to go and return together with a reciprocal motion. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Therefore the reciprocations of the water in ascending and descending are all performed in equal times, whether the motion be more or less intense or remiss.

COR. 2. If the length of the whole water in the canal be of feet of French measure, the water will descend in one second of time, and will ascend in another second, and so on by turns in infinitum; for a pendulum of such feet in length will oscillate in one second of time.

COR. 3. But if the length of the water be increased or diminished, the time of the reciprocation will be increased or diminished in the subduplicate ratio of the length.

PROPOSITION XLV. THEOREM XXXVI.

The velocity of waves is in the subduplicate ratio of the breadths.

This follows from the construction of the following Proposition.

PROPOSITION XLVI. PROBLEM X.

To find the velocity of waves.

Let a pendulum be constructed, whose length between the point of suspension and the centre of oscillation is equal to the breadth of the waves[Pg 362] and in the time that the pendulum will perform one single oscillation the waves will advance forward nearly a space equal to their breadth.

That which I call the breadth of the waves is the transverse measure lying between the deepest part of the hollows, or the tops of the ridges. Let ABCDEF represent the surface of stagnant water ascending and descending in successive waves; and let A, C, E, &c., be the tops of the waves; and let B, D, F, &c., be the intermediate hollows. Because the motion of the waves is carried on by the successive ascent and descent of the water, so that the parts thereof, as A, C, E, &c., which are highest at one time become lowest immediately after; and because the motive force, by which the highest parts descend and the lowest ascend, is the weight of the elevated water, that alternate ascent and descent will be analogous to the reciprocal motion of the water in the canal, and observe the same laws as to the times of its ascent and descent; and therefore (by Prop. XLIV) if the distances between the highest places of the waves A, C, E, and the lowest B, D, F, be equal to twice the length of any pendulum, the highest parts A, C, E, will become the lowest in the time of one oscillation, and in the time of another oscillation will ascend again. Therefore between the passage of each wave, the time of two oscillations will intervene; that is, the wave will describe its breadth in the time that pendulum will oscillate twice; but a pendulum of four times that length, and which therefore is equal to the breadth of the waves, will just oscillate once in that time. Q.E.I.

COR. 1. Therefore waves, whose breadth is equal to French feet, will advance through a space equal to their breadth in one second of time; and therefore in one minute will go over a space of feet; and in an hour a space of 11000 feet, nearly.

COR. 2. And the velocity of greater or less waves will be augmented or diminished in the subduplicate ratio of their breadth.

These things are true upon the supposition that the parts of water ascend or descend in a right line; but, in truth, that ascent and descent is rather performed in a circle; and therefore I propose the time defined by this Proposition as only near the truth.

PROPOSITION XLVII. THEOREM XXXVII.

If pulses are propagated through a fluid, the several particles of the fluid, going and returning with the shortest reciprocal motion, are always accelerated or retarded according to the law of the oscillating pendulum.

Let AB, BC, CD, &c., represent equal distances of successive pulses, ABC the line of direction of the motion of the successive pulses propagated[Pg 363] from A to B; E, F, G three physical points of the quiescent medium situate in the right line AC at equal distances from each other; E_e_, F_f_, G_g_, equal spaces of extreme shortness, through which those points go and return with a reciprocal motion in each vibration; , , , any intermediate places of the same points; EF, FG physical lineolæ, or linear parts of the medium lying between those points, and successively transferred into the places , , and ef, fg. Let there be drawn the right line PS equal to the right line E_e_. Bisect the same in O, and from the centre O, with the interval OP, describe the circle SIP_i_. Let the whole time of one vibration; with its proportional parts, be expounded by the whole circumference of this circle and its parts, in such sort, that, when any time PH or PHS_h_ is completed, if there be let fall to PS the perpendicular HL or hl, and there be taken equal to PL or P_l_, the physical point E may be found in . A point, as E, moving according to this law with a reciprocal motion in its going from E through to e, and returning again through to E, will perform its several vibrations with the same degrees of acceleration and retardation with those of an oscillating pendulum. We are now to prove that the several physical points of the medium will be agitated with such a kind of motion. Let us suppose, then, that a medium hath such a motion excited in it from any cause whatsoever, and consider what will follow from thence.

In the circumference PHS_h_ let there be taken the equal arcs, HI, IK, or hi, ik, having the same ratio to the whole circumference as the equal right lines EF, FG have to BC, the whole interval of the pulses. Let fall the perpendiculars IM, KN, or im, kn; then because the points E, F, G are successively agitated with like motions, and perform their entire vibrations composed of their going and return, while the pulse is transferred from B to C; if PH or PHS_h_ be the time elapsed since the beginning of the motion of the point E, then will PI or PHS_i_ be the time elapsed since the beginning of the motion of the point F, and PK or PHS_k_ the time elapsed since the beginning of the motion of the point G; and therefore , , , will be respectively equal to PL, PM, PN, while the points are going, and to P_l_, P_m_, P_n_, when the points are returning. Therefore or will, when the points are going, be equal to EG - LN[Pg 364] and in their return equal to EG + ln. But is the breadth or expansion of the part EG of the medium in the place ; and therefore the expansion of that part in its going is to its mean expansion as EG - LN to EG; and in its return, as EG + ln or EG + LN to EG. Therefore since LN is to KH as IM to the radius OP, and KH to EG as the circumference PHS_h_P to BC; that is, if we put V for the radius of a circle whose circumference is equal to BC the interval of the pulses, as OP to V; and, ex æquo, LN to EG as IM to V; the expansion of the part EG, or of the physical point F in the place , to the mean expansion of the same part in its first place EG, will be as V - IM to V in going, and as V + im to V in its return. Hence the elastic force of the point F in the place to its mean elastic force in the place EG is as to in its going, and as to in its return. And by the same reasoning the elastic forces of the physical points E and G in going are as and to ; and the difference of the forces to the mean elastic force of the medium as to ; that is, as to , or as HL - KN to V; if we suppose (by reason of the very short extent of the vibrations) HL and KN to be indefinitely less than the quantity V. Therefore since the quantity V is given, the difference of the forces is as HL - KN; that is (because HL - KN is proportional to HK, and OM to OI or OP; and because HK and OP are given) as OM; that is, if F_f_ be bisected in , as . And for the same reason the difference of the elastic forces of the physical points and , in the return of the physical lineola , is as . But that difference (that is, the excess of the elastic force of the point above the elastic force of the point ) is the very force by which the intervening physical lineola of the medium is accelerated in going, and retarded in returning; and therefore the accelerative force of the physical lineola is as its distance from , the middle place of the vibration. Therefore (by Prop. XXXVIII, Book I) the time is rightly expounded by the arc PI; and the linear part of the medium is moved according to the law above-mentioned, that is, according to the law of a pendulum oscillating; and the case is the same of all the linear parts of which the whole medium is compounded. Q.E.D.

COR. Hence it appears that the number of the pulses propagated is the same with the number of the vibrations of the tremulous body, and is not multiplied in their progress. For the physical lineola as soon as it returns to its first place is at rest; neither will it move again, unless it[Pg 365] receives a new motion either from the impulse of the tremulous body, or of the pulses propagated from that body. As soon, therefore, as the pulses cease to be propagated from the tremulous body, it will return to a state of rest, and move no more.

PROPOSITION XLVIII. THEOREM XXXVIII.

The velocities of pulses propagated in an elastic fluid are in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the elastic force directly, and the subduplicate ratio of the density inversely; supposing the elastic force of the fluid to be proportional to its condensation.

CASE 1. If the mediums be homogeneous, and the distances of the pulses in those mediums be equal amongst themselves, but the motion in one medium is more intense than in the other, the contractions and dilatations of the correspondent parts will be as those motions; not that this proportion is perfectly accurate. However, if the contractions and dilatations are not exceedingly intense, the error will not be sensible; and therefore this proportion may be considered as physically exact. Now the motive elastic forces are as the contractions and dilatations; and the velocities generated in the same time in equal parts are as the forces. Therefore equal and corresponding parts of corresponding pulses will go and return together, through spaces proportional to their contractions and dilatations, with velocities that are as those spaces; and therefore the pulses, which in the time of one going and returning advance forward a space equal to their breadth, and are always succeeding into the places of the pulses that immediately go before them, will, by reason of the equality of the distances, go forward in both mediums with equal velocity.

CASE 2. If the distances of the pulses or their lengths are greater in one medium than in another, let us suppose that the correspondent parts describe spaces, in going and returning, each time proportional to the breadths of the pulses; then will their contractions and dilatations be equal; and therefore if the mediums are homogeneous, the motive elastic forces, which agitate them with a reciprocal motion, will be equal also. Now the matter to be moved by these forces is as the breadth of the pulses; and the space through which they move every time they go and return is in the same ratio. And, moreover, the time of one going and returning is in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the matter, and the subduplicate ratio of the space; and therefore is as the space. But the pulses advance a space equal to their breadths in the times of going once and returning once; that is, they go over spaces proportional to the times, and therefore are equally swift.

CASE 3. And therefore in mediums of equal density and elastic force, all the pulses are equally swift. Now if the density or the elastic force of the medium were augmented, then, because the motive force is increased[Pg 366] in the ratio of the elastic force, and the matter to be moved is increased in the ratio of the density, the time which is necessary for producing the same motion as before will be increased in the subduplicate ratio of the density, and will be diminished in the subduplicate ratio of the elastic force. And therefore the velocity of the pulses will be in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the density of the medium inversely, and the subduplicate ratio of the elastic force directly. Q.E.D.

This Proposition will be made more clear from the construction of the following Problem.

PROPOSITION XLIX. PROBLEM XI.

The density and elastic force of a medium being given, to find the velocity of the pulses.

Suppose the medium to be pressed by an incumbent weight after the manner of our air; and let A be the height of a homogeneous medium, whose weight is equal to the incumbent weight, and whose density is the same with the density of the compressed medium in which the pulses are propagated. Suppose a pendulum to be constructed whose length between the point of suspension and the centre of oscillation is A: and in the time in which that pendulum will perform one entire oscillation composed of its going and returning, the pulse will be propagated right onwards through a space equal to the circumference of a circle described with the radius A.

For, letting those things stand which were constructed in Prop. XLVII, if any physical line, as EF, describing the space PS in each vibration, be acted on in the extremities P and S of every going and return that it makes by an elastic force that is equal to its weight, it will perform its several vibrations in the time in which the same might oscillate in a cycloid whose whole perimeter is equal to the length PS; and that because equal forces will impel equal corpuscles through equal spaces in the same or equal times. Therefore since the times of the oscillations are in the subduplicate ratio of the lengths of the pendulums, and the length of the pendulum is equal to half the arc of the whole cycloid, the time of one vibration would be to the time of the oscillation of a pendulum whose length is A in the subduplicate ratio of the length or PO to the length A. But the elastic force with which the physical lineola EG is urged, when it is found in its extreme places P, S, was (in the demonstration of Prop. XLVII) to its whole elastic force as HL - KN to V, that is (since the point K now falls upon P), as HK to V: and all that force, or which is the same thing, the incumbent weight by which the lineola EG is compressed, is to the weight of the lineola as the altitude A of the incumbent weight to EG the length of the lineola; and therefore, ex æquo, the force[Pg 367] with which the lineola EG is urged in the places P and S is to the weight of that lineola as HK × A to V × EG; or as PO × A to VV; because HK was to EG as PO to V. Therefore since the times in which equal bodies are impelled through equal spaces are reciprocally in the subduplicate ratio of the forces, the time of one vibration, produced by the action of that elastic force, will be to the time of a vibration, produced by the impulse of the weight in a subduplicate ratio of VV to PO × A, and therefore to the time of the oscillation of a pendulum whose length is A in the subduplicate ratio of VV to PO × A, and the subduplicate ratio of PO to A conjunctly; that is, in the entire ratio of V to A. But in the time of one vibration composed of the going and returning of the pendulum, the pulse will be propagated right onward through a space equal to its breadth BC.

Therefore the time in which a pulse runs over the space BC is to the time of one oscillation composed of the going and returning of the pendulum as V to A, that is, as BC to the circumference of a circle whose radius is A. But the time in which the pulse will run over the space BC is to the time in which it will run over a length equal to that circumference in the same ratio; and therefore in the time of such an oscillation the pulse will run over a length equal to that circumference. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. The velocity of the pulses is equal to that which heavy bodies acquire by falling with an equally accelerated motion, and in their fall describing half the altitude A. For the pulse will, in the time of this fall, supposing it to move with the velocity acquired by that fall, run over a space that will be equal to the whole altitude A; and therefore in the time of one oscillation composed of one going and return, will go over a space equal to the circumference of a circle described with the radius A; for the time of the fall is to the time of oscillation as the radius of a circle to its circumference.

[Pg 368]

COR. 2. Therefore since that altitude A is as the elastic force of the fluid directly, and the density of the same inversely, the velocity of the pulses will be in a ratio compounded of the subduplicate ratio of the density inversely, and the subduplicate ratio of the elastic force directly.

PROPOSITION L. PROBLEM XII.

To find the distances of the pulses.

Let the number of the vibrations of the body, by whose tremor the pulses are produced, be found to any given time. By that number divide the space which a pulse can go over in the same time, and the part found will be the breadth of one pulse. Q.E.I.

SCHOLIUM.

The last Propositions respect the motions of light and sounds; for since light is propagated in right lines, it is certain that it cannot consist in action alone (by Prop. XLI and XLII). As to sounds, since they arise from tremulous bodies, they can be nothing else but pulses of the air propagated through it (by Prop. XLIII); and this is confirmed by the tremors which sounds, if they be loud and deep, excite in the bodies near them, as we experience in the sound of drums; for quick and short tremors are less easily excited. But it is well known that any sounds, falling upon strings in unison with the sonorous bodies, excite tremors in those strings. This is also confirmed from the velocity of sounds; for since the specific gravities of rain-water and quicksilver are to one another as about 1 to , and when the mercury in the barometer is at the height of 30 inches of our measure, the specific gravities of the air and of rain-water are to one another as about 1 to 870, therefore the specific gravity of air and quicksilver are to each other as 1 to 11890. Therefore when the height of the quicksilver is at 30 inches, a height of uniform air, whose weight would be sufficient to compress our air to the density we find it to be of, must be equal to 356700 inches, or 29725 feet of our measure; and this is that very height of the medium, which I have called A in the construction of the foregoing Proposition. A circle whose radius is 29725 feet is 186768 feet in circumference. And since a pendulum inches in length completes one oscillation, composed of its going and return, in two seconds of time, as is commonly known, it follows that a pendulum 29725 feet, or 356700 inches in length will perform a like oscillation in seconds. Therefore in that time a sound will go right onwards 186768 feet, and therefore in one second 979 feet.

But in this computation we have made no allowance for the crassitude of the solid particles of the air, by which the sound is propagated instantaneously. Because the weight of air is to the weight of water as 1 to 870, and because salts are almost twice as dense as water; if the particles of air are supposed to be of near the same density as those of water or salt, and the rarity of the air arises from the intervals of the particles; the diameter of one particle of air will be to the interval between the centres[Pg 369] of the particles as 1 to about 9 or 10, and to the interval between the particles themselves as 1 to 8 or 9. Therefore to 979 feet, which, according to the above calculation, a sound will advance forward in one second of time, we may add , or about 109 feet, to compensate for the crassitude of the particles of the air: and then a sound will go forward about 1088 feet in one second of time.

Moreover, the vapours floating in the air being of another spring, and a different tone, will hardly, if at all, partake of the motion of the true air in which the sounds are propagated. Now if these vapours remain unmoved, that motion will be propagated the swifter through the true air alone, and that in the subduplicate ratio of the defect of the matter. So if the atmosphere consist of ten parts of true air and one part of vapours, the motion of sounds will be swifter in the subduplicate ratio of 11 to 10, or very nearly in the entire ratio of 21 to 20, than if it were propagated through eleven parts of true air: and therefore the motion of sounds above discovered must be increased in that ratio. By this means the sound will pass through 1142 feet in one second of time.

These things will be found true in spring and autumn, when the air is rarefied by the gentle warmth of those seasons, and by that means its elastic force becomes somewhat more intense. But in winter, when the air is condensed by the cold, and its elastic force is somewhat remitted, the motion of sounds will be slower in a subduplicate ratio of the density; and, on the other hand, swifter in the summer.

Now by experiments it actually appears that sounds do really advance in one second of time about 1142 feet of English measure, or 1070 feet of French measure.

The velocity of sounds being known, the intervals of the pulses are known also. For M. Sauveur, by some experiments that he made, found that an open pipe about five Paris feet in length gives a sound of the same tone with a viol-string that vibrates a hundred times in one second. Therefore there are near 100 pulses in a space of 1070 Paris feet, which a sound runs over in a second of time; and therefore one pulse fills up a space of about Paris feet, that is, about twice the length of the pipe. From whence it is probable that the breadths of the pulses, in all sounds made in open pipes, are equal to twice the length of the pipes.

Moreover, from the Corollary of Prop. XLVII appears the reason why the sounds immediately cease with the motion of the sonorous body, and why they are heard no longer when we are at a great distance from the sonorous bodies than when we are very near them. And besides, from the foregoing principles, it plainly appears how it comes to pass that sounds are so mightily increased in speaking-trumpets; for all reciprocal motion uses to be increased by the generating cause at each return. And in tubes hindering the dilatation of the sounds, the motion decays more slowly, and[Pg 370] recurs more forcibly; and therefore is the more increased by the new motion impressed at each return. And these are the principal phænomena of sounds.

SECTION IX.

Of the circular motion of fluids.

HYPOTHESIS.

The resistance arising from the want of lubricity in the parts of a fluid, is, cæteris paribus, proportional to the velocity with which the parts of the fluid are separated from each other.

PROPOSITION LI. THEOREM XXXIX.

If a solid cylinder infinitely long, in an uniform and infinite fluid, revolve with an uniform motion about an axis given in position, and the fluid be forced round by only this impulse of the cylinder, and every part of the fluid persevere uniformly in its motion; I say, that the periodic times of the parts of the fluid are as their distances from the axis of the cylinder.

Let AFL be a cylinder turning uniformly about the axis S, and let the concentric circles BGM, CHN, DIO, EKP, &c., divide the fluid into innumerable concentric cylindric solid orbs of the same thickness. Then, because the fluid is homogeneous, the impressions which the contiguous orbs make upon each other mutually will be (by the Hypothesis) as their translations from each other, and as the contiguous superficies upon which the impressions are made. If the impression made upon any orb be greater or less on its concave than on its convex side, the stronger impression will prevail, and will either accelerate or retard the motion of the orb, according as it agrees with, or is contrary to, the motion of the same. Therefore, that every orb may persevere uniformly in its motion, the impressions made on both sides must be equal and their directions contrary. Therefore since the impressions are as the contiguous superficies, and as their translations from one another, the translations will be inversely as the superficies, that is, inversely as the distances of the superficies from the axis. But the differences of[Pg 371] the angular motions about the axis are as those translations applied to the distances, or as the translations directly and the distances inversely; that is, joining these ratios together, as the squares of the distances inversely. Therefore if there be erected the lines A_a_, B_b_, C_c_, D_d_, E_e_, &c., perpendicular to the several parts of the infinite right line SABCDEQ, and reciprocally proportional to the squares of SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, &c., and through the extremities of those perpendiculars there be supposed to pass an hyperbolic curve, the sums of the differences, that is, the whole angular motions, will be as the correspondent sums of the lines A_a_, B_b_, C_c_, D_d_, E_e_, that is (if to constitute a medium uniformly fluid the number of the orbs be increased and their breadth diminished in infinitum), as the hyperbolic areas A_a_Q, B_b_Q, C_c_Q, D_d_Q, E_e_Q, &c., analogous to the sums; and the times, reciprocally proportional to the angular motions, will be also reciprocally proportional to those areas. Therefore the periodic time of any particle as D, is reciprocally as the area D_d_Q, that is (as appears from the known methods of quadratures of curves), directly as the distance SD. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Hence the angular motions of the particles of the fluid are reciprocally as their distances from the axis of the cylinder, and the absolute velocities are equal.

COR. 2. If a fluid be contained in a cylindric vessel of an infinite length, and contain another cylinder within, and both the cylinders revolve about one common axis, and the times of their revolutions be as their semi-diameters, and every part of the fluid perseveres in its motion, the periodic times of the several parts will be as the distances from the axis of the cylinders.

COR. 3. If there be added or taken away any common quantity of angular motion from the cylinder and fluid moving in this manner; yet because this new motion will not alter the mutual attrition of the parts of the fluid, the motion of the parts among themselves will not be changed; for the translations of the parts from one another depend upon the attrition. Any part will persevere in that motion, which, by the attrition made on both sides with contrary directions, is no more accelerated than it is retarded.

COR. 4. Therefore if there be taken away from this whole system of the cylinders and the fluid all the angular motion of the outward cylinder, we shall have the motion of the fluid in a quiescent cylinder.

COR. 5. Therefore if the fluid and outward cylinder are at rest, and the inward cylinder revolve uniformly, there will be communicated a circular motion to the fluid, which will be propagated by degrees through the whole fluid; and will go on continually increasing, till such time as the several parts of the fluid acquire the motion determined in Cor. 4.

COR. 6. And because the fluid endeavours to propagate its motion still[Pg 372] farther, its impulse will carry the outmost cylinder also about with it, unless the cylinder be violently detained; and accelerate its motion till the periodic times of both cylinders become equal among themselves. But if the outward cylinder be violently detained, it will make an effort to retard the motion of the fluid; and unless the inward cylinder preserve that motion by means of some external force impressed thereon, it will make it cease by degrees.

All these things will be found true by making the experiment in deep standing water.

PROPOSITION LII. THEOREM XL.

If a solid sphere, in an uniform and infinite fluid, revolves about an axis given in position with an uniform motion, and the fluid be forced round by only this impulse of the sphere; and every part of the fluid perseveres uniformly in its motion; I say, that the periodic times of the parts of the fluid are as the squares of their distances from the centre of the sphere.

CASE 1. Let AFL be a sphere turning uniformly about the axis S, and let the concentric circles BGM, CHN, DIO, EKP, &c., divide the fluid into innumerable concentric orbs of the same thickness. Suppose those orbs to be solid; and, because the fluid is homogeneous, the impressions which the contiguous orbs make one upon another will be (by the supposition) as their translations from one another, and the contiguous superficies upon which the impressions are made. If the impression upon any orb be greater or less upon its concave than upon its convex side, the more forcible impression will prevail, and will either accelerate or retard the velocity of the orb, according as it is directed with a conspiring or contrary motion to that of the orb. Therefore that every orb may persevere uniformly in its motion, it is necessary that the impressions made upon both sides of the orb should be equal, and have contrary directions. Therefore since the impressions are as the contiguous superficies, and as their translations from one another, the translations will be inversely as the superficies, that is, inversely as the squares of the distances of the superficies from the centre. But the differences of the angular motions about the axis are as those translations applied to the distances, or as the translations directly and the distances inversely; that is, by compounding those ratios, as the cubes of the distances inversely. Therefore if upon the several parts of the infinite right line SABCDEQ[Pg 373] there be erected the perpendiculars A_a_, B_b_, C_c_, D_d_, E_e_, &c., reciprocally proportional to the cubes of SA, SB, SC, SD, SE, &c., the sums of the differences, that is, the whole angular motions will be as the corresponding sums of the lines A_a_, B_b_, C_c_, D_d_, E_e_, &c., that is (if to constitute an uniformly fluid medium the number of the orbs be increased and their thickness diminished in infinitum), as the hyperbolic areas A_a_Q, B_b_Q, C_c_Q, D_d_Q, E_e_Q, &c., analogous to the sums; and the periodic times being reciprocally proportional to the angular motions, will be also reciprocally proportional to those areas. Therefore the periodic time of any orb DIO is reciprocally as the area D_d_Q, that is (by the known methods of quadratures), directly as the square of the distance SD. Which was first to be demonstrated.

CASE 2. From the centre of the sphere let there be drawn a great number of indefinite right lines, making given angles with the axis, exceeding one another by equal differences; and, by these lines revolving about the axis, conceive the orbs to be cut into innumerable annuli; then will every annulus have four annuli contiguous to it, that is, one on its inside, one on its outside, and two on each hand. Now each of these annuli cannot be impelled equally and with contrary directions by the attrition of the interior and exterior annuli, unless the motion be communicated according to the law which we demonstrated in Case 1. This appears from that demonstration. And therefore any series of annuli, taken in any right line extending itself in infinitum from the globe, will move according to the law of Case 1, except we should imagine it hindered by the attrition of the annuli on each side of it. But now in a motion, according to this law, no such is, and therefore cannot be, any obstacle to the motions persevering according to that law. If annuli at equal distances from the centre revolve either more swiftly or more slowly near the poles than near the ecliptic, they will be accelerated if slow, and retarded if swift, by their mutual attrition; and so the periodic times will continually approach to equality, according to the law of Case 1. Therefore this attrition will not at all hinder the motion from going on according to the law of Case 1, and therefore that law will take place; that is, the periodic times of the several annuli will be as the squares of their distances from the centre of the globe. Which was to be demonstrated in the second place.

CASE 3. Let now every annulus be divided by transverse sections into innumerable particles constituting a substance absolutely and uniformly fluid; and because these sections do not at all respect the law of circular motion, but only serve to produce a fluid substance, the law of circular motion will continue the same as before. All the very small annuli will either not at all change their asperity and force of mutual attrition upon account of these sections, or else they will change the same equally. Therefore the proportion of the causes remaining the same, the proportion of the effects[Pg 374] will remain the same also; that is, the proportion of the motions and the periodic times. Q.E.D. But now as the circular motion, and the centrifugal force thence arising, is greater at the ecliptic than at the poles, there must be some cause operating to retain the several particles in their circles; otherwise the matter that is at the ecliptic will always recede from the centre, and come round about to the poles by the outside of the vortex, and from thence return by the axis to the ecliptic with a perpetual circulation.

COR. 1. Hence the angular motions of the parts of the fluid about the axis of the globe are reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the centre of the globe, and the absolute velocities are reciprocally as the same squares applied to the distances from the axis.

COR. 2. If a globe revolve with a uniform motion about an axis of a given position in a similar and infinite quiescent fluid with an uniform motion, it will communicate a whirling motion to the fluid like that of a vortex, and that motion will by degrees be propagated onward in infinitum; and this motion will be increased continually in every part of the fluid, till the periodical times of the several parts become as the squares of the distances from the centre of the globe.

COR. 3. Because the inward parts of the vortex are by reason of their greater velocity continually pressing upon and driving forward the external parts, and by that action are perpetually communicating motion to them, and at the same time those exterior parts communicate the same quantity of motion to those that lie still beyond them, and by this action preserve the quantity of their motion continually unchanged, it is plain that the motion is perpetually transferred from the centre to the circumference of the vortex, till it is quite swallowed up and lost in the boundless extent of that circumference. The matter between any two spherical superficies concentrical to the vortex will never be accelerated; because that matter will be always transferring the motion it receives from the matter nearer the centre to that matter which lies nearer the circumference.

COR. 4. Therefore, in order to continue a vortex in the same state of motion, some active principle is required from which the globe may receive continually the same quantity of motion which it is always communicating to the matter of the vortex. Without such a principle it will undoubtedly come to pass that the globe and the inward parts of the vortex, being always propagating their motion to the outward parts, and not receiving any new motion, will gradually move slower and slower, and at last be carried round no longer.

COR. 5. If another globe should be swimming in the same vortex at a certain distance from its centre, and in the mean time by some force revolve constantly about an axis of a given inclination, the motion of this globe will drive the fluid round after the manner of a vortex; and at first this[Pg 375] new and small vortex will revolve with its globe about the centre of the other; and in the mean time its motion will creep on farther and farther, and by degrees be propagated in infinitum, after the manner of the first vortex. And for the same reason that the globe of the new vortex was carried about before by the motion of the other vortex, the globe of this other will be carried about by the motion of this new vortex, so that the two globes will revolve about some intermediate point, and by reason of that circular motion mutually fly from each other, unless some force restrains them. Afterward, if the constantly impressed forces, by which the globes persevere in their motions, should cease, and every thing be left to act according to the laws of mechanics, the motion of the globes will languish by degrees (for the reason assigned in Cor. 3 and 4), and the vortices at last will quite stand still.

COR. 6. If several globes in given places should constantly revolve with determined velocities about axes given in position, there would arise from them as many vortices going on in infinitum. For upon the same account that any one globe propagates its motion in infinitum, each globe apart will propagate its own motion in infinitum also; so that every part of the infinite fluid will be agitated with a motion resulting from the actions of all the globes. Therefore the vortices will not be confined by any certain limits, but by degrees run mutually into each other; and by the mutual actions of the vortices on each other, the globes will be perpetually moved from their places, as was shewn in the last Corollary; neither can they possibly keep any certain position among themselves, unless some force restrains them. But if those forces, which are constantly impressed upon the globes to continue these motions, should cease, the matter (for the reason assigned in Cor. 3 and 4) will gradually stop, and cease to move in vortices.

COR. 7. If a similar fluid be inclosed in a spherical vessel, and, by the uniform rotation of a globe in its centre, is driven round in a vortex; and the globe and vessel revolve the same way about the same axis, and their periodical times be as the squares of the semi-diameters; the parts of the fluid will not go on in their motions without acceleration or retardation till their periodical times are as the squares of their distances from the centre of the vortex. No constitution of a vortex can be permanent but this.

COR. 8. If the vessel, the inclosed fluid, and the globe, retain this motion, and revolve besides with a common angular motion about any given axis, because the mutual attrition of the parts of the fluid is not changed by this motion, the motions of the parts among each other will not be changed; for the translations of the parts among themselves depend upon this attrition. Any part will persevere in that motion in which its attrition[Pg 376] on one side retards it just as much as its attrition on the other side accelerates it.

COR. 9. Therefore if the vessel be quiescent, and the motion of the globe be given, the motion of the fluid will be given. For conceive a plane to pass through the axis of the globe, and to revolve with a contrary motion; and suppose the sum of the time of this revolution and of the revolution of the globe to be to the time of the revolution of the globe as the square of the semi-diameter of the vessel to the square of the semi-diameter of the globe; and the periodic times of the parts of the fluid in respect of this plane will be as the squares of their distances from the centre of the globe.

COR. 10. Therefore if the vessel moves about the same axis with the globe, or with a given velocity about a different one, the motion of the fluid will be given. For if from the whole system we take away the angular motion of the vessel, all the motions will remain the same among themselves as before, by Cor. 8, and those motions will be given by Cor. 9.

COR. 11. If the vessel and the fluid are quiescent, and the globe revolves with an uniform motion, that motion will be propagated by degrees through the whole fluid to the vessel, and the vessel will be carried round by it, unless violently detained; and the fluid and the vessel will be continually accelerated till their periodic times become equal to the periodic times of the globe. If the vessel be either withheld by some force, or revolve with any constant and uniform motion, the medium will come by little and little to the state of motion defined in Cor. 8, 9, 10, nor will it ever persevere in any other state. But if then the forces, by which the globe and vessel revolve with certain motions, should cease, and the whole system be left to act according to the mechanical laws, the vessel and globe, by means of the intervening fluid, will act upon each other, and will continue to propagate their motions through the fluid to each other, till their periodic times become equal among themselves, and the whole system revolves together like one solid body.

SCHOLIUM.

In all these reasonings I suppose the fluid to consist of matter of uniform density and fluidity; I mean, that the fluid is such, that a globe placed any where therein may propagate with the same motion of its own, at distances from itself continually equal, similar and equal motions in the fluid in the same interval of time. The matter by its circular motion endeavours to recede from the axis of the vortex, and therefore presses all the matter that lies beyond. This pressure makes the attrition greater, and the separation of the parts more difficult; and by consequence diminishes the fluidity of the matter. Again; if the parts of the fluid are in any one place denser or larger than in the others, the fluidity will be less in that place, because there are fewer superficies where the parts can be separated[Pg 377] from each other. In these cases I suppose the defect of the fluidity to be supplied by the smoothness or softness of the parts, or some other condition; otherwise the matter where it is less fluid will cohere more, and be more sluggish, and therefore will receive the motion more slowly, and propagate it farther than agrees with the ratio above assigned. If the vessel be not spherical, the particles will move in lines not circular, but answering to the figure of the vessel; and the periodic times will be nearly as the squares of the mean distances from the centre. In the parts between the centre and the circumference the motions will be slower where the spaces are wide, and swifter where narrow; but yet the particles will not tend to the circumference at all the more for their greater swiftness; for they then describe arcs of less curvity, and the conatus of receding from the centre is as much diminished by the diminution of this curvature as it is augmented by the increase of the velocity. As they go out of narrow into wide spaces, they recede a little farther from the centre, but in doing so are retarded; and when they come out of wide into narrow spaces, they are again accelerated; and so each particle is retarded and accelerated by turns for ever. These things will come to pass in a rigid vessel; for the state of vortices in an infinite fluid is known by Cor. 6 of this Proposition.

I have endeavoured in this Proposition to investigate the properties of vortices, that I might find whether the celestial phænomena can be explained by them; for the phænomenon is this, that the periodic times of the planets revolving about Jupiter are in the sesquiplicate ratio of their distances from Jupiter's centre; and the same rule obtains also among the planets that revolve about the sun. And these rules obtain also with the greatest accuracy, as far as has been yet discovered by astronomical observation. Therefore if those planets are carried round in vortices revolving about Jupiter and the sun, the vortices must revolve according to that law. But here we found the periodic times of the parts of the vortex to be in the duplicate ratio of the distances from the centre of motion; and this ratio cannot be diminished and reduced to the sesquiplicate, unless either the matter of the vortex be more fluid the farther it is from the centre, or the resistance arising from the want of lubricity in the parts of the fluid should, as the velocity with which the parts of the fluid are separated goes on increasing, be augmented with it in a greater ratio than that in which the velocity increases. But neither of these suppositions seem reasonable. The more gross and less fluid parts will tend to the circumference, unless they are heavy towards the centre. And though, for the sake of demonstration, I proposed, at the beginning of this Section, an Hypothesis that the resistance is proportional to the velocity, nevertheless, it is in truth probable that the resistance is in a less ratio than that of the velocity; which granted, the periodic times of the parts of the vortex will be in a greater than the duplicate ratio of the distances from its centre. If, as some think, the vortices move more swiftly near the centre, then slower[Pg 378] to a certain limit, then again swifter near the circumference, certainly neither the sesquiplicate, nor any other certain and determinate ratio, can obtain in them. Let philosophers then see how that phænomenon of the sesquiplicate ratio can be accounted for by vortices.

PROPOSITION LIII. THEOREM XLI.

Bodies carried about in a vortex, and returning in the same orb, are of the same density with the vortex, and are moved according to the same law with the parts of the vortex, as to velocity and direction of motion.

For if any small part of the vortex, whose particles or physical points preserve a given situation among each other, be supposed to be congealed, this particle will move according to the same law as before, since no change is made either in its density, vis insita, or figure. And again; if a congealed or solid part of the vortex be of the same density with the rest of the vortex, and be resolved into a fluid, this will move according to the same law as before, except in so far as its particles, now become fluid, may be moved among themselves. Neglect, therefore, the motion of the particles among themselves as not at all concerning the progressive motion of the whole, and the motion of the whole will be the same as before. But this motion will be the same with the motion of other parts of the vortex at equal distances from the centre; because the solid, now resolved into a fluid, is become perfectly like to the other parts of the vortex. Therefore a solid, if it be of the same density with the matter of the vortex, will move with the same motion as the parts thereof, being relatively at rest in the matter that surrounds it. If it be more dense, it will endeavour more than before to recede from the centre; and therefore overcoming that force of the vortex, by which, being, as it were, kept in equilibrio, it was retained in its orbit, it will recede from the centre, and in its revolution describe a spiral, returning no longer into the same orbit. And, by the same argument, if it be more rare, it will approach to the centre. Therefore it can never continually go round in the same orbit, unless it be of the same density with the fluid. But we have shewn in that case that it would revolve according to the same law with those parts of the fluid that are at the same or equal distances from the centre of the vortex.

COR. 1. Therefore a solid revolving in a vortex, and continually going round in the same orbit, is relatively quiescent in the fluid that carries it.

COR. 2. And if the vortex be of an uniform density, the same body may revolve at any distance from the centre of the vortex.

SCHOLIUM.

[Pg 381]

Hence it is manifest that the planets are not carried round in corporeal vortices; for, according to the Copernican hypothesis, the planets going round the sun revolve in ellipses, having the sun in their common focus; and by radii drawn to the sun describe areas proportional to the times. But now the parts of a vortex can never revolve with such a motion. Let AD, BE, CF, represent three orbits described about the sun S, of which let the utmost circle CF be concentric to the sun; and let the aphelia of the two innermost be A, B; and their perihelia D, E. Therefore a body revolving in the orb CF, describing, by a radius drawn to the sun, areas proportional to the times, will move with an uniform motion. And, according to the laws of astronomy, the body revolving in the orb BE will move slower in its aphelion B, and swifter in its perihelion E; whereas, according to the laws of mechanics, the matter of the vortex ought to move more swiftly in the narrow space between A and C than in the wide space between D and F; that is, more swiftly in the aphelion than in the perihelion. Now these two conclusions contradict each other. So at the beginning of the sign of Virgo, where the aphelion of Mars is at present, the distance between the orbits of Mars and Venus is to the distance between the same orbits, at the beginning of the sign of Pisces, as about 3 to 2; and therefore the matter of the vortex between those orbits ought to be swifter at the beginning of Pisces than at the beginning of Virgo in the ratio of 3 to 2; for the narrower the space is through which the same quantity of matter passes in the same time of one revolution, the greater will be the velocity with which it passes through it. Therefore if the earth being relatively at rest in this celestial matter should be carried round by it, and revolve together with it about the sun, the velocity of the earth at the beginning of Pisces would be to its velocity at the beginning of Virgo in a sesquialteral ratio. Therefore the sun's apparent diurnal motion at the beginning of Virgo ought to be above 70 minutes, and at the beginning of Pisces less than 48 minutes; whereas, on the contrary, that apparent motion of the sun is really greater at the beginning of Pisces than at the beginning of Virgo, as experience testifies; and therefore the earth is swifter at the beginning of Virgo than at the beginning of Pisces; so that the hypothesis of vortices is utterly irreconcileable with astronomical phænomena, and rather serves to perplex than explain the heavenly motions. How these motions are performed in free spaces without vortices, may be understood by the first Book; and I shall now more fully treat of it in the following Book.

[Pg 383]

BOOK III. BOOK III.

[Pg 384]

IN the preceding Books I have laid down the principles of philosophy, principles not philosophical, but mathematical: such, to wit, as we may build our reasonings upon in philosophical inquiries. These principles are the laws and conditions of certain motions, and powers or forces, which chiefly have respect to philosophy; but, lest they should have appeared of themselves dry and barren, I have illustrated them here and there with some philosophical scholiums, giving an account of such things as are of more general nature, and which philosophy seems chiefly to be founded on; such as the density and the resistance of bodies, spaces void of all bodies, and the motion of light and sounds. It remains that, from the same principles, I now demonstrate the frame of the System of the World. Upon this subject I had, indeed, composed the third Book in a popular method, that it might be read by many; but afterward, considering that such as had not sufficiently entered into the principles could not easily discern the strength of the consequences, nor lay aside the prejudices to which they had been many years accustomed, therefore, to prevent the disputes which might be raised upon such accounts, I chose to reduce the substance of this Book into the form of Propositions (in the mathematical way), which should be read by those only who had first made themselves masters of the principles established in the preceding Books: not that I would advise any one to the previous study of every Proposition of those Books; for they abound with such as might cost too much time, even to readers of good mathematical learning. It is enough if one carefully reads the Definitions, the Laws of Motion, and the first three Sections of the first Book. He may then pass on to this Book, and consult such of the remaining Propositions of the first two Books, as the references in this, and his occasions, shall require.