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
COR. 5. And because DB, db are ultimately parallel and in the
duplicate ratio of the lines AD, Ad, the ultimate curvilinear
areas ADB, Adb will be (by the nature of the parabola) two
thirds of the rectilinear triangles ADB, Adb and the segments
AB, Ab will be one third of the same triangles. And thence those
areas and those segments will be in the triplicate ratio as well of the
tangents AD, Ad, as of the chords and arcs AB, AB.
SCHOLIUM.
But we have all along supposed the angle of contact to be neither
infinitely greater nor infinitely less than the angles of contact made
by circles and their tangents; that is, that the curvature at the
point A is neither infinitely small nor infinitely great, or that the
interval AJ is of a finite magnitude. For DB may be taken as AD3: in
which case no circle can be drawn through the point A, between the
tangent AD and the curve AB, and therefore the angle of contact will
be infinitely less than those of circles. And by a like reasoning,
if DB be made successfully as , ,
, , &c., we shall have a series
of angles of contact, proceeding in infinitum, wherein every
succeeding term is infinitely less than the preceding.[Pg 102] And if DB be
made successively as , ,
, ,
, , &c., we
shall have another infinite series of angles of contact, the first
of which is of the same sort with those of circles, the second
infinitely greater, and every succeeding one infinitely greater than
the preceding. But between any two of these angles another series of
intermediate angles of contact may be interposed, proceeding both ways
in infinitum, wherein every succeeding angle shall be infinitely
greater or infinitely less than the preceding. As if between the terms
and there were interposed the
series , ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
, &c. And again, between any two angles of
this series, a new series of intermediate angles may be interposed,
differing from one another by infinite intervals. Nor is nature
confined to any bounds.
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