The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
For let A B be perpendicular to A D, and let B A be produced to F. If
therefore A F be coincident with A E, it is of itself manifest that the
motion in E A will make A to endeavour in the line A B. Let now E A be
oblique to A D, and from the point E let the strait line E C be drawn,
cutting A D at right angles in D, and let the rectangles A B C D and A D
E F be completed. I have shown (in the 8th article of chapter XVI) that
the body will be carried from E to A by the concourse of two uniform
motions, the one in E F and its parallels, the other in E D and its
parallels. But the motion in E F and its parallels, whereof D A is one,
contributes nothing to the body in A to make it endeavour or press
towards B; and therefore the whole endeavour, which the body hath in the
inclined line E A to pass or press the strait line A D, it hath it all
from the perpendicular motion or endeavour in F A. Wherefore the body E,
after it is in A, will have only that perpendicular endeavour which
proceeds from the motion in F A, that is, in A B; which was to be
proved.
[Sidenote: When a hard body, pressing another body, penetrates the same,
it doth not penetrate it perpendicularly, unless it fall
perpendicularly upon it.]
7. If a hard body falling upon or pressing another body penetrate the
same, its endeavour after its first penetration will be neither in the
inclined line produced, nor in the perpendicular, but sometimes betwixt
both, sometimes without them.
Let E A G (in the same fig. 1) be the inclined line produced; and first,
let the passage through the medium, in which E A is, be easier than the
passage through the medium in which A G is. As soon therefore as the
body is within the medium in which is A G, it will find greater
resistance to its motion in D A and its parallels, than it did whilst it
was above A D; and therefore below A D it will proceed with slower
motion in the parallels of D A, than above it. Wherefore the motion
which is compounded of the two motions in E F and E D will be slower
below A D than above it; and therefore also, the body will not proceed
from A in E A produced, but below it. Seeing, therefore, the endeavour
in A B is generated by the endeavour in F A; if to the endeavour in F A
there be added the endeavour in D A, which is not all taken away by the
immersion of the point A into the lower medium, the body will not
proceed from A in the perpendicular A B, but beyond it; namely, in some
strait line between A B and A G, as in the line A H.
Secondly, let the passage through the medium E A be less easy than that
through A G. The motion, therefore, which is made by the concourse of
the motions in E F and F B, is slower above A D than below it; and
consequently, the endeavour will not proceed from A in E A produced, but
beyond it, as in A I. Wherefore, if a hard body falling, &c.; which was
to be proved.