The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
10. From what has been said of deficient figures described in a
parallelogram, may be found out what proportions spaces, transmitted
with accelerated motion in determined times, have to the times
themselves, according as the moved body is accelerated in the several
times with one or more degrees of velocity.
For let the parallelogram A B C D, in the 6th figure, and in it the
three-sided figure D E B C be described; and let F G be drawn anywhere
parallel to the base, cutting the diagonal B D in H, and the crooked
line B E D in E; and let the proportion of B C to B F be, for example,
triplicate to that of F G to F E; whereupon the figure D E B C will be
triple to its complement B E D A; and in like manner, I E being drawn
parallel to B C, the three-sided figure E K B F will be triple to its
complement B K E I. Wherefore the parts of the deficient figure cut off
from the vertex by strait lines parallel to the base, namely, D E B C
and E K B F, will be to one another as the parallelograms A C and I F;
that is, in proportion compounded of the proportions of the altitudes
and bases. Seeing therefore the proportion of the altitude B C to the
altitude B F is triplicate to the proportion of the base D C to the base
F E, the figure D E B C to the figure E K B F will be quadruplicate to
the proportion of the same D C to F E. And by the same method, may be
found out what proportion any of the said three-sided figures has to any
part of the same, cut off from the vertex by a strait line parallel to
the base.
Now as the said figures are understood to be described by the continual
decreasing of the base, as of C D, for example, till it end in a point,
as in B; so also they may be understood to be described by the continual
increasing of a point, as of B, till it acquire any magnitude, as that
of C D.