Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/191



mean time the curvilinear path AP. Let AP be the whole curvilinear path described since the wheel touched the globe in A, and the length of this path AP will be to twice the versed sine of the arc ½PB as 2CE to CB. For let the right line CE (produced if need be) meet the wheel in V, and join CP, BP, EP, VP; produce CP, and let fall thereon the perpendicular VF. Let PH, VH, meeting in H, touch the circle in P and V, and let PH cut VF in G, and to VP let fall the perpendiculars GI, HK. From the centre C with any interval let there be described the circle nom, cutting the right line CP in n, the perimeter of the wheel BP in o, and the curvilinear path AP in m; and from the centre V with the interval Vo let there be described a circle cutting VP produced in q.

Because the wheel in its progress always revolves about the point of contact B, it is manifest that the right line BP is perpendicular to that curve line AP which the point P of the wheel describes, and therefore that the right line VP will touch this curve in the point P. Let the radius of the circle nom be gradually increased or diminished so that at last it become equal to the distance CP; and by reason of the similitude of the evanescent figure Pnomq, and the figure PFGVI, the ultimate ratio of the evanescent lineolae Pm, Pn, Po, Pq, that is, the ratio of the momentary mutations of the curve AP, the right line CP, the circular arc BP, and the right line VP, will be