u52By a like reasoning one may proceed to more compounded cases in infinitum.

COR. 1. In the second Case, the nearer the very great body approaches to[Pg 202] the system of two or more revolving bodies, the greater will the perturbation be of the motions of the parts of the system among themselves; because the inclinations of the lines drawn from that great body to those parts become greater; and the inequality of the proportion is also greater.

COR. 2. But the perturbation will be greatest of all, if we suppose the accelerative attractions of the parts of the system towards the greatest body of all are not to each other reciprocally as the squares of the distances from that great body; especially if the inequality of this proportion be greater than the inequality of the proportion of the distances from the great body. For if the accelerative force, acting in parallel directions and equally, causes no perturbation in the motions of the parts of the system, it must of course, when it acts unequally, cause a perturbation somewhere, which will be greater or less as the inequality is greater or less. The excess of the greater impulses acting upon some bodies, and not acting upon others, must necessarily change their situation among themselves. And this perturbation, added to the perturbation arising from the inequality and inclination of the lines, makes the whole perturbation greater.

COR. 3. Hence if the parts of this system move in ellipses or circles without any remarkable perturbation, it is manifest that, if they are at all impelled by accelerative forces tending to any other bodies, the impulse is very weak, or else is impressed very near equally and in parallel directions upon all of them.

PROPOSITION LXVI. THEOREM XXVI.

If three bodies whose forces decrease in a duplicate ratio of the distances attract each other mutually; and the accelerative attractions of any two towards the third be between themselves reciprocally as the squares of the distances; and the two least revolve about the greatest; I say, that the interior of the two revolving bodies will, by radii drawn to the innermost and greatest, describe round that body areas more proportional to the times, and a figure more approaching to that of an ellipsis having its focus in the point of concourse of the radii, if that great body be agitated by those attractions, than it would do if that great body were not attracted at all by the lesser, but remained at rest; or than it would if that great body were very much more or very much less attracted, or very much more or very much less agitated, by the attractions.

This appears plainly enough from the demonstration of the second Corollary of the foregoing Proposition; but it may be made out after this manner by a way of reasoning more distinct and more universally convincing.

CASE 1. Let the lesser bodies P and S revolve in the same plane about the greatest body T, the body P describing the interior orbit PAB, and S[Pg 203] the exterior orbit ESE. Let SK be the mean distance of the bodies P and S; and let the accelerative attraction of the body P towards S, at that mean distance, be expressed by that line SK. Make SL to SK as the square of SK to the square of SP, and SL will be the accelerative attraction of the body P towards S at any distance SP. Join PT, and draw LM parallel to it meeting ST in M; and the attraction SL will be resolved (by Cor. 2, of the Laws of Motion) into the attractions SM, LM. And so the body P will be urged with a threefold accelerative force. One of these forces tends towards T, and arises from the mutual attraction of the bodies T and P. By this force alone the body P would describe round the body T, by the radius PT, areas proportional to the times, and an ellipsis whose focus is in the centre of the body T; and this it would do whether the body T remained unmoved, or whether it were agitated by that attraction. This appears from Prop. XI, and Cor. 2 and 3 of Theor. XXI. The other force is that of the attraction LM, which, because it tends from P to T, will be superadded to and coincide with the former force; and cause the areas to be still proportional to the times, by Cor. 3, Theor. XXI. But because it is not reciprocally proportional to the square of the distance PT, it will compose, when added to the former, a force varying from that proportion; which variation will be the greater by how much the proportion of this force to the former is greater, cæteris paribus. Therefore, since by Prop. XI, and by Cor. 2, Theor. XXI, the force with which the ellipsis is described about the focus T ought to be directed to that focus, and to be reciprocally proportional to the square of the distance PT, that compounded force varying from that proportion will make the orbit PAB vary from the figure of an ellipsis that has its focus in the point T; and so much the more by how much the variation from that proportion is greater; and by consequence by how much the proportion of the second force LM to the first force is greater, cæteris paribus. But now the third force SM, attracting the body P in a direction parallel to ST, composes with the other forces a new force which is no longer directed from P to T; and which varies so much more from this direction by how much the proportion of this third force to the other forces is greater, cæteris paribus; and therefore causes the body P to describe, by the radius TP, areas no longer proportional to the times; and therefore makes the variation from that proportionality so much greater by how much the proportion of this force to the others is greater. But this third force will increase the variation of the orbit PAB from the[Pg 204] elliptical figure before-mentioned upon two accounts; first because that force is not directed from P to T; and, secondly, because it is not reciprocally proportional to the square of the distance PT. These things being premised, it is manifest that the areas are then most nearly proportional to the times, when that third force is the least possible, the rest preserving their former quantity; and that the orbit PAB does then approach nearest to the elliptical figure above-mentioned, when both the second and third, but especially the third force, is the least possible; the first force remaining in its former quantity.

Let the accelerative attraction of the body T towards S be expressed by the line SN; then if the accelerative attractions SM and SN were equal, these, attracting the bodies T and P equally and in parallel directions would not at all change their situation with respect to each other. The motions of the bodies between themselves would be the same in that case as if those attractions did not act at all, by Cor. 6, of the Laws of Motion. And, by a like reasoning, if the attraction SN is less than the attraction SM, it will take away out of the attraction SM the part SN, so that there will remain only the part (of the attraction) MN to disturb the proportionality of the areas and times, and the elliptical figure of the orbit. And in like manner if the attraction SN be greater than the attraction SM, the perturbation of the orbit and proportion will be produced by the difference MN alone. After this manner the attraction SN reduces always the attraction SM to the attraction MN, the first and second attractions remaining perfectly unchanged; and therefore the areas and times come then nearest to proportionality, and the orbit PAB to the above-mentioned elliptical figure, when the attraction MN is either none, or the least that is possible; that is, when the accelerative attractions of the bodies P and T approach as near as possible to equality; that is, when the attraction SN is neither none at all, nor less than the least of all the attractions SM, but is, as it were, a mean between the greatest and least of all those attractions SM, that is, not much greater nor much less than the attraction SK. Q.E.D.

CASE 2. Let now the lesser bodies P, S, revolve about a greater T in different planes; and the force LM, acting in the direction of the line PT situate in the plane of the orbit PAB, will have the same effect as before; neither will it draw the body P from the plane of its orbit. But the other force NM acting in the direction of a line parallel to ST (and which, therefore, when the body S is without the line of the nodes is inclined to the plane of the orbit PAB), besides the perturbation of the motion just now spoken of as to longitude, introduces another perturbation also as to latitude, attracting the body P out of the plane of its orbit. And this perturbation, in any given situation of the bodies P and T to each other, will be as the generating force MN; and therefore becomes least when the force MN is least, that is (as was just now shewn), where the attraction SN is not much greater nor much less than the attraction SK. Q.E.D.