Let us now examine how far these conclusions will be altered if the body
from time to time is forced towards S. We will suppose it moving
uniformly from A to B as before, no matter for the present how it got to
A, or into the direction AB. If left to itself it would, in an equal
time (say 1´´) go through BC´ in the same straight line with and equal
to AB. But just as it reaches B, and is beginning to move along BC´, let
it be suddenly pulled towards S with a motion which, had it been at
rest, would have carried it in the same time, 1´´ through any other
space B_c_. According to the second law of motion, its direction during
this 1´´, in consequence of the two motions combined, will be along BC,
the diagonal of the parallelogram of which BC´, B_c_, are sides. In
this case, as this figure is drawn, BC, though passed in the same time,
is longer than AB; that is to say, the body is moving quicker than at
first. How is it with the triangular areas, supposed as before to be
swept by a string constantly stretched between S and the body? It will
soon be seen that these still remain equal, notwithstanding the change
of direction, and increased swiftness. For since CC´ is parallel to
B_c_, the triangles SCB, SC´B are equal, being on the same base SB, and
between the same parallels SB, CC´, and SC´B is equal to SBA as before,
therefore SCB, SBA are equal. The body is now moving uniformly (though
quicker than along AB) along BC. As before, it would in a time equal to
the time of passing along BC, go through an equal space CD´ in the same
straight line. But if at C it has a second pull towards S, strong enough
to carry it to _d_ in the same time, its direction will change a second
time to CD, the diagonal of the parallelogram, whose sides are CD´,
C_d_; and the circumstances being exactly similar to those at the first
pull, it is shewn in the same manner that the triangular area SDC = SCB
= SBA.
Thus it appears, that in consequence of these intermitting pulls towards
S, the body may be moving round, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but
that the triangles formed by any of the straight portions of its path
(which are all described in equal times), and the lines joining S to the
ends of that portion, are all equal. The path it will take depends of
course, in other respects, upon the frequency and strength of the
different pulls, and it might happen, if they were duly proportionate,
that when at H, and moving off in the direction HA´, the pull H_a_
might be such as just to carry the body back to A, the point from which
it started, and with such a motion, that after one pull more, A_b_, at
A, it might move along AB as it did at first. If this were so, the body
would continue to move round in the same polygonal path, alternately
approaching and receding from S, as long as the same pulls were repeated
in the same order, and at the same intervals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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