Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/147

 IZ is to LP as SI to SL. Wherefore the points S, P, Z, are in one right line. Moreover, since the tangents meet in G, the rectangle XIY or IZ² will (by the properties of the conic sections) be to IA² as GP² is to GA², and consequently IZ will be to IA as GP to GA. Wherefore the points P, Z, A, lie in one right line, and therefore the points S, P, and A are in one right line. And the same argument will prove that the points R, P, and A are in one right line. Wherefore the points of contact A and P lie in the right line RS. But after these points are found, the trajectory may be described, as in the first Case of the preceding Problem. Q.E.F.

In this Proposition, and Case 2 of the foregoing, the constructions are the same, whether the right line XY cut the trajectory in X and Y, or not; neither do they depend upon that section. But the constructions being demonstrated where that right line does cut the trajectory, the constructions where it does not are also known; and therefore, for brevity's sake, I omit any farther demonstration of them.


 * To transform figures into other figures of the same kind.

Suppose that any figure HGI is to be transformed. Draw, at pleasure, two parallel lines AO, BL, cutting any third line AB, given by position, in A and B, and from any point G of the figure, draw out any right line GD, parallel to OA, till it meet the right line AB. Then from any given point O in the line OA, draw to the point D the right line OD, meeting BL in d; and from the point of concourse raise the right line dg containing any given angle with the right line BL, and having such ratio to Od as DG has to OD; and g will be the point in the new figure hgi, corresponding to the point G. And in like manner the several points of the first figure will give as many correspondent points of the new figure. If we therefore conceive the point G to be carried along by a continual motion through all the points of the first figure, the point g will be likewise carried along by a continual motion through all the points of the new figure, and describe the same. For distinction's sake, let us call DG the first ordinate, dg the new ordinate, AD the first abscissa, ad the new abscissa; O the pole, OD the abscinding radius, OA the first ordinate radius, and Oa (by which the parallelogram OABa is completed) the new ordinate radius.

I say, then, that if the point G is placed in a right line given by position, the point g will be also placed in a right line given by position. If the point G is placed in a conic section, the point g will be likewise placed