Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/190

 would do in free spaces about the centre S; and therefore (by Cor. 2, Prop. X, and Cor. 2, Prop. XXXVIII.) they will in equal times either describe ellipses in that plane about the centre C, or move to and fro in right lines passing through the centre C in that plane; completing the same periods of time in all cases. Q.E.D.

The ascent and descent of bodies in curve superficies has a near relation to these motions we have been speaking of. Imagine curve lines to be described on any plane, and to revolve about any given axes passing through the centre of force, and by that revolution to describe curve superficies; and that the bodies move in such sort that their centres may be always found in those superficies. If those bodies reciprocate to and fro with an oblique ascent and descent, their motions will be performed in planes passing through the axis, and therefore in the curve lines, by whose revolution those curve superficies were generated. In those cases, therefore, it will be sufficient to consider the motion in those curve lines.


 * If a wheel stands upon the outside of a globe at right angles thereto, and revolving about its own axis goes forward in a great circle, the length of the curvilinear path which any point, given in the perimeter of the wheel, hath described since the time that it touched the globe (which curvilinear path we may call the cycloid or epicycloid), will be to double the versed sine of half the arc which since that time has touched the globe in passing over it, as the sum of the diameters of the globe and the wheel to the semi-diameter of the globe.


 * If a wheel stand upon the inside of a concave globe at right angles thereto, and revolving about its own axis go forward in one of the great circles of the globe, the length of the curvilinear path which any point, given in the perimeter of the wheel, hath described since it touched the globe, will be to the double of the versed sine of half the arc which in all that time has touched the globe in passing over it, as the difference of the diameters of the globe and the wheel to the semi-diameter of the globe.

Let ABL be the globe, C its centre, BPV the wheel insisting thereon, E the centre of the wheel, B the point of contact, and P the given point in the perimeter of the wheel. Imagine this wheel to proceed in the great circle ABL from A through B towards L, and in its progress to revolve in such a manner that the arcs AB, PB may be always equal one to the other, and the given point P in the perimeter of the wheel may describe in the