CASE 2. Let the corpuscle C be now placed on that hand of the plane lGL that is within the solid, and take the distance CK equal to the distance CG. And the part of the solid LGloKO terminated by the parallel planes lGL, oKO, will attract the corpuscle C, situate in the middle, neither one way nor another, the contrary actions of the opposite points destroying one another by reason of their equality. Therefore the corpuscle C is attracted by the force only of the solid situate beyond the plane OK. But this force (by Case 1) is reciprocally as , that is, (because CG, CK are equal) reciprocally as . Q.E.D. COR. 1. Hence if the solid LGIN be terminated on each side by two infinite parallel places LG, IN, its attractive force is known, subducting from the attractive force of the whole infinite solid LGKO the attractive force of the more distant part NIKO infinitely produced towards KO. COR. 2. If the more distant part of this solid be rejected, because its attraction compared with the attraction of the nearer part is inconsiderable,[Pg 242] the attraction of that nearer part will, as the distance increases, decrease nearly in the ratio of the power . COR. 3. And hence if any finite body, plane on one side, attract a corpuscle situate over against the middle of that plane, and the distance between the corpuscle and the plane compared with the dimensions of the attracting body be extremely small; and the attracting body consist of homogeneous particles, whose attractive forces decrease in the ratio of any power of the distances greater than the quadruplicate; the attractive force of the whole body will decrease very nearly in the ratio of a power whose side is that very small distance, and the index less by 3 than the index of the former power. This assertion does not hold good, however, of a body consisting of particles whose attractive forces decrease in the ratio of the triplicate power of the distances; because, in that case, the attraction of the remoter part of the infinite body in the second Corollary is always infinitely greater than the attraction of the nearer part. SCHOLIUM. If a body is attracted perpendicularly towards a given plane, and from the law of attraction given, the motion of the body be required; the Problem will be solved by seeking (by Prop. XXXIX) the motion of the body descending in a right line towards that plane, and (by Cor. 2, of the Laws) compounding that motion with an uniform motion performed in the direction of lines parallel to that plane. And, on the contrary, if there be required the law of the attraction tending towards the plane in perpendicular directions, by which the body may be caused to move in any given curve line, the Problem will be solved by working after the manner of the third Problem.