The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
4. Secondly, supposing the same simple motion in the air, water, or
other fluid medium; the parts of the medium, which adhere to the moved
body, will be carried about with the same motion and velocity, so that
in what time soever any point of the movent finishes its circle, in the
same time every part of the medium, which adheres to the movent, shall
also describe such a part of its circle, as is equal to the whole circle
of the movent; I say, it shall describe a part, and not the whole
circle, because all its parts receive their motion from an interior
concentric movent, and of concentric circles the exterior are always
greater than the interior; nor can the motion imprinted by any movent be
of greater velocity than that of the movent itself. From whence it
follows, that the more remote parts of the fluid ambient shall finish
their circles in times, which have to one another the same proportion
with their distances from the movent. For every point of the fluid
ambient, as long as it toucheth the body which carries it about, is
carried about with it, and would make the same circle, but that it is
left behind so much as the exterior circle exceeds the interior. So that
if we suppose some thing, which is not fluid, to float in that part of
the fluid ambient which is nearest to the movent, it will together with
the movent be carried about. Now that part of the fluid ambient, which
is not the nearest but almost the nearest, receiving its degree of
velocity from the nearest, which degree cannot be greater than it was in
the giver, doth therefore in the same time make a circular line, not a
whole circle, yet equal to the whole circle of the nearest. Therefore in
the same time that the movent describes its circle, that which doth not
touch it shall not describe its circle; yet it shall describe such a
part of it, as is equal to the whole circle of the movent. And after the
same manner, the more remote parts of the ambient will describe in the
same time such parts of their circles, as shall be severally equal to
the whole circle of the movent; and, by consequent, they shall finish
their whole circles in times proportional to their distances from the
movent; which was to be proved.
[Sidenote: Simple motion dissipates heterogeneous and congregates
homogeneous bodies.]