Let BKL be a curve superficies, T a body revolving in it, STR a trajectory which the body describes in the same, S the beginning of the trajectory, OMK the axis of the curve superficies, TN a right line let fall perpendicularly from the body to the axis; OP a line parallel and equal thereto drawn from the given point O in the axis; AP the orthographic projection of the trajectory described by the point P in the plane AOP in which the revolving line OP is found; A the beginning of that projection, answering to the point S; TC a right line drawn from the body to the centre; TG a part thereof proportional to the centripetal force with which the body tends towards the centre C; TM a right line perpendicular to the curve superficies; TI a part thereof proportional to the force of pressure with which the body urges[Pg 193] the superficies, and therefore with which it is again repelled by the superficies towards M; PTF a right line parallel to the axis and passing through the body, and GF, IH right lines let fall perpendicularly from the points G and I upon that parallel PHTF. I say, now, that the area AOP, described by the radius OP from the beginning of the motion, is proportional to the time. For the force TG (by Cor. 2, of the Laws of Motion) is resolved into the forces TF, FG; and the force TI into the forces TH, HI; but the forces TF, TH, acting in the direction of the line PF perpendicular to the plane AOP, introduce no change in the motion of the body but in a direction perpendicular to that plane. Therefore its motion, so far as it has the same direction with the position of the plane, that is, the motion of the point P, by which the projection AP of the trajectory is described in that plane, is the same as if the forces TF, TH were taken away, and the body were acted on by the forces FG, HI alone; that is, the same as if the body were to describe in the plane AOP the curve AP by means of a centripetal force tending to the centre O, and equal to the sum of the forces FG and HI. But with such a force as that (by Prop. 1) the area AOP will be described proportional to the time. Q.E.D. COR. By the same reasoning, if a body, acted on by forces tending to two or more centres in any the same right line CO, should describe in a free space any curve line ST, the area AOP would be always proportional to the time. PROPOSITION LVI. PROBLEM XXXVII. Granting the quadratures of curvilinear figures, and supposing that there are given both the law of centripetal force tending to a given centre, and the curve superficies whose axis passes through that centre; it is required to find the trajectory which a body will describe in that superficies, when going off from a given place with a given velocity, and in a given direction in that superficies.