u84Let, therefore, A represent the resistance of the box upon its external superficies, and B the resistance of the empty box on its internal superficies; and if the resistances to the internal parts of bodies equally swift be as the matter, or the number of particles that are resisted, then 78B will be the resistance made to the internal parts of the box, when full; and therefore the whole resistance A + B of the empty box will be to the whole resistance A + 78B of the full box as 77 to 78, and, by division, A + B to 77B as 77 to 1; and thence A + B to B as 77 × 77 to 1, and, by division again, A to B as 5928 to 1. Therefore the resistance of the empty box in its internal parts will be above 5000 times less than the resistance on its external superficies. This reasoning depends upon the supposition that the greater resistance of the full box arises not from any other latent cause, but only from the action of some subtile fluid upon the included metal.

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This experiment is related by memory, the paper being lost in which I had described it; so that I have been obliged to omit some fractional parts, which are split out of my memory; and I have no leisure to try it again. The first time I made it, the hook being weak, the full box was retarded sooner. The cause I found to be, that the hook was not strong enough to bear the weight of the box; so that, as it oscillated to and fro, the hook was bent sometimes this and sometimes that way. I therefore procured a hook of sufficient strength, so that the point of suspension might remain unmoved, and then all things happened as is above described.

Of the motion of fluids, and the resistance made to projected bodies.

PROPOSITION XXXII. THEOREM XXVI.

Suppose two similar systems of bodies consisting of an equal number of particles, and let the correspondent particles be similar and proportional, each in one system to each in the other, and have a like situation among themselves, and the same given ratio of density to each other; and let them begin to move among themselves in proportional times, and with like motions (that is, those in one system among one another, and those in the other among one another). And if the particles that are in the same system do not touch one another, except in the moments of reflexion; nor attract, nor repel each other, except with accelerative forces that are as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely, and the squares of the velocities directly; I say, that the particles of those systems will continue to move among themselves with like motions and in proportional times.

Like bodies in like situations are said to be moved among themselves with like motions and in proportional times, when their situations at the end of those times are always found alike in respect of each other; as suppose we compare the particles in one system with the correspondent particles in the other. Hence the times will be proportional, in which similar and proportional parts of similar figures will be described by correspondent particles. Therefore if we suppose two systems of this kind, the correspondent particles, by reason of the similitude of the motions at their beginning, will continue to be moved with like motions, so long as they move without meeting one another; for if they are acted on by no forces, they will go on uniformly in right lines, by the 1st Law. But if they do agitate one another with some certain forces, and those forces are as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely and the squares of the velocities directly, then, because the particles are in like situations, and their forces are proportional, the whole forces with which correspondent particles are agitated, and which are compounded of each of the agitating forces (by Corol. 2 of the Laws), will have like directions, and have the same effect as if they respected centres placed alike among the particles; and those whole forces will be to each other as the several forces which compose them, that is, as the diameters of the correspondent particles inversely, and the squares of the velocities directly: and therefore will cause[Pg 324] correspondent particles to continue to describe like figures. These things will be so (by Cor. 1 and 8, Prop. IV., Book I), if those centres are at rest but if they are moved, yet by reason of the similitude of the translations, their situations among the particles of the system will remain similar, so that the changes introduced into the figures described by the particles will still be similar. So that the motions of correspondent and similar particles will continue similar till their first meeting with each other; and thence will arise similar collisions, and similar reflexions; which will again beget similar motions of the particles among themselves (by what was just now shown), till they mutually fall upon one another again, and so on ad infinitum.

COR. 1. Hence if any two bodies, which are similar and in like situations to the correspondent particles of the systems, begin to move amongst them in like manner and in proportional times, and their magnitudes and densities be to each other as the magnitudes and densities of the corresponding particles, these bodies will continue to be moved in like manner and in proportional times; for the case of the greater parts of both systems and of the particles is the very same.

COR. 2. And if all the similar and similarly situated parts of both systems be at rest among themselves; and two of them, which are greater than the rest, and mutually correspondent in both systems, begin to move in lines alike posited, with any similar motion whatsoever, they will excite similar motions in the rest of the parts of the systems, and will continue to move among those parts in like manner and in proportional times; and will therefore describe spaces proportional to their diameters.

PROPOSITION XXXIII. THEOREM XXVII.

The same things being supposed, I say, that the greater parts of the systems are resisted in a ratio compounded of the duplicate ratio of their velocities, and the duplicate ratio of their diameters, and the simple ratio of the density of the parts of the systems.

For the resistance arises partly from the centripetal or centrifugal forces with which the particles of the system mutually act on each other, partly from the collisions and reflexions of the particles and the greater parts. The resistances of the first kind are to each other as the whole motive forces from which they arise, that is, as the whole accelerative forces and the quantities of matter in corresponding parts; that is (by the supposition), as the squares of the velocities directly, and the distances of the corresponding particles inversely, and the quantities of matter in the correspondent parts directly: and therefore since the distances of the particles in one system are to the correspondent distances of the particles of the other as the diameter of one particle or part in the former system to the[Pg 325] diameter of the correspondent particle or part in the other, and since the quantities of matter are as the densities of the parts and the cubes of the diameters; the resistances are to each other as the squares of the velocities and the squares of the diameters and the densities of the parts of the systems. Q.E.D. The resistances of the latter sort are as the number of correspondent reflexions and the forces of those reflexions conjunctly; but the number of the reflexions are to each other as the velocities of the corresponding parts directly and the spaces between their reflexions inversely. And the forces of the reflexions are as the velocities and the magnitudes and the densities of the corresponding parts conjunctly; that is, as the velocities and the cubes of the diameters and the densities of the parts. And, joining all these ratios, the resistances of the corresponding parts are to each other as the squares of the velocities and the squares of the diameters and the densities of the parts conjunctly. Q.E.D.

COR. 1. Therefore if those systems are two elastic fluids, like our air, and their parts are at rest among themselves; and two similar bodies proportional in magnitude and density to the parts of the fluids, and similarly situated among those parts, be any how projected in the direction of lines similarly posited; and the accelerative forces with which the particles of the fluids mutually act upon each other are as the diameters of the bodies projected inversely and the squares of their velocities directly; those bodies will excite similar motions in the fluids in proportional times, and will describe similar spaces and proportional to their diameters.