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
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.
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