The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
Let the strait line A B (in the 6th figure) be moved uniformly to C D;
and let another movent A C be moved at the same time to B D with motion
so accelerated, that the proportion of the lengths transmitted be
everywhere triplicate to the proportion of their times; and let the
impetus acquired in the end of that motion be B D, equal to the strait
line A C; and lastly, let A G D be the crooked line of the first
semiparabolaster of two means. I say, that by the concourse of the two
movents together, the body will be always in that crooked line A G D.
For let the parallelogram A B D C be completed; and from the point E,
taken anywhere in the strait line A B, let E F be drawn parallel to A C,
and cutting the crooked line in G; and through the point G let H I be
drawn parallel to the strait lines A B and C D. Seeing therefore the
proportion of A B to A E is, by supposition, triplicate to the
proportion of E F to E G, that is, of the time A C to the time A H, at
the same time when A C is in E F, A B will be in H I; and therefore the
moved body will be in the common point G. And so it will always be, in
what part soever of A B the point E be taken; and by consequent, the
body will always be in the crooked line A G D; which was to be
demonstrated.
11. By the same method it may be shown, what line it is that is made by
the motion of a body carried by the concourse of any two movents, which
are moved one of them uniformly, the other with acceleration, but in
such proportions of spaces and times as are explicable by numbers, as
_duplicate_, _triplicate_, &c., or such as may be designed by any broken
number whatsoever. For which this is the rule. Let the two numbers of
the length and time be added together; and let their sum be the
denominator of a fraction, whose numerator must be the number of the
length. Seek this fraction in the table of the third article of the
XVIIth chapter; and the line sought will be that, which denominates the
three-sided figure noted on the left hand; and the kind of it will be
that, which is numbered above over the fraction. For example, let there
be a concourse of two movents, whereof one is moved uniformly, the other
with motion so accelerated, that the spaces are to the times as 5 to 3.
Let a fraction be made whose denominator is the sum of 5 and 3, and the
numerator 5, namely the fraction 5⁄8. Seek in the table, and you will
find 5⁄8 to be the third in that row, which belongs to the three-sided
figure of four means. Wherefore the line of motion made by the concourse
of two such movents, as are last of all described, will be the crooked
line of the third parabolaster of four means.