Newton's Principia : $b The mathematical principles of natural philosophyNewton, Isaac
General
Newton's Principia : $b The mathematical principles of natural philosophy
Newton, Isaac
Celestial mechanics -- Early works to 1800; Mechanics -- Early works to 1800
Let the parts of the quiescent orbit VP, PK be similar and equal to
the parts of the revolving orbit up, pk; and let the
distance of the points P and K be supposed of the utmost smallness.
Let fall a perpendicular kr from the point k to the
right line pC, and produce it to m, so that mr
may be to kr as the angle VCp to the angle VCP. Because
the altitudes of the bodies PC and pC, KC and kC, are
always equal, it is manifest that the increments or decrements of the
lines PC and pC are always equal; and therefore if each of the
several motions of the bodies in the places P and p be resolved
into two (by Cor. 2 of the Laws of Motion), one of which is directed
towards the centre, or according to the lines PC, pC, and the
other, transverse to the former, hath a direction perpendicular to
the lines PC and pC; the motions towards the centre will be
equal, and the transverse motion of the body p will be to the
transverse motion of the body P as the angular motion of the line
pC to the angular motion of the line PC; that is, as the angle
VCp to the angle VCP. Therefore, at the same time that the
body P, by both its motions, comes to the point K, the body p,
having an equal motion towards the centre, will be equally moved from
p towards C; and therefore that time being expired, it will be
found somewhere in the line mkr, which, passing through the
point k, is perpendicular to the line pC; and by its
transverse motion will acquire a distance from the line[Pg 174] pC,
that will be to the distance which the other body P acquires from the
line PC as the transverse motion of the body p to the transverse
motion of the other body P. Therefore since kr is equal to the
distance which the body P acquires from the line PC, and mr is
to kr as the angle VCp to the angle VCP, that is, as the
transverse motion of the body p to the transverse motion of the
body P, it is manifest that the body p, at the expiration of
that time, will be found in the place m. These things will be
so, if the bodies p and P are equally moved in the directions
of the lines pC and PC, and are therefore urged with equal
forces in those directions, But if we take an angle pCn
that is to the angle pCk as the angle VCp to the
angle VCP, and nC be equal to kC, in that case the body
p at the expiration of the time will really be in n;
and is therefore urged with a greater force than the body P, if the
angle nCp is greater than the angle kCp,
that is, if the orbit upk, move either in consequentia
or in antecedentia, with a celerity greater than the double
of that with which the line CP moves in consequentia; and
with a less force if the orbit moves slower in antecedentia.
And the difference of the forces will be as the interval mn
of the places through which the body would be carried by the action
of that difference in that given space of time. About the centre C
with the interval Cn or Ck suppose a circle described
cutting the lines mr, mn produced in s and
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