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
and there will remain the density of the medium in P, as
. Let the
spiral be given, and, because of the given ratio of OS to OP, the
density of the medium in P will be as .
Therefore in a medium whose[Pg 289] density is reciprocally as SP the distance
from the centre, a body will revolve in this spiral. Q.E.D.
COR. 1. The velocity in any place P, is always the same wherewith a
body in a non-resisting medium with the same centripetal force would
revolve in a circle, at the same distance SP from the centre.
COR. 2. The density of the medium, if the distance SP be given, is
as , but if that distance is not
given, as .
And thence a spiral may be fitted to any density of the medium.
COR. 3. The force of the resistance in any place P is to the
centripetal force in the same place as to
OP. For those forces are to each other as and TQ, or as
and , that is, as
and PQ, or and
OP. The spiral therefore being given, there is given the proportion of
the resistance to the centripetal force; and, vice versa, from
that proportion given the spiral is given.
COR. 4. Therefore the body cannot revolve in this spiral, except where
the force of resistance is less than half the centripetal force. Let
the resistance be made equal to half the centripetal force, and the
spiral will coincide with the right line PS, and in that right line
the body will descend to the centre with a velocity that is to the
velocity, with which it was proved before, in the case of the parabola
(Theor. X, Book I), the descent would be made in a non-resisting
medium, in the subduplicate ratio of unity to the number two. And the
times of the descent will be here reciprocally as the velocities, and
therefore given.
COR. 5. And because at equal distances from the centre the velocity
is the same in the spiral PQR as it is in the right line SP, and the
length of the spiral is to the length of the right line PS in a given
ratio, namely, in the ratio of OP to OS; the time of the descent in the
spiral will be to the time of the descent in the right line SP in the
same given ratio, and therefore given.
COR. 6. If from the centre S, with any two given intervals, two circles
are described; and these circles remaining, the angle which the spiral
makes with the radius PS be any how changed; the number of revolutions
which the body can complete in the space between the circumferences
of those circles, going round in the spiral from one circumference
to another, will be as ,
or as the tangent of the angle which the spiral makes with the
radius PS; and[Pg 290] the time of the same revolutions will be as
, that is, as the secant of the
same angle, or reciprocally as the density of the medium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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