Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/212

 the body P is retained in its orbit, is increased at the quadratures by the addition caused by the force LM, and diminished at the syzygies by the subduction caused by the force KL, and, because the force KL is greater than LM, it is more diminished than increased; and, moreover, since that centripetal force (by Cor. 2, Prop. IV) is in a ratio compounded of the simple ratio of the radius TP directly, and the duplicate ratio of the periodical time inversely; it is plain that this compounded ratio is diminished by the action of the force KL; and therefore that the periodical time, supposing the radius of the orbit PT to remain the same, will be increased, and that in the subduplicate of that ratio in which the centripetal force is diminished; and, therefore, supposing this radius increased or diminished, the periodical time will be increased more or diminished less than in the sesquiplicate ratio of this radius, by Cor. 6, Prop. IV. If that force of the central body should gradually decay, the body P being less and less attracted would go farther and farther from the centre T; and, on the contrary, if it were increased, it would draw nearer to it. Therefore if the action of the distant body S, by which that force is diminished, were to increase and decrease by turns, the radius TP will be also increased and diminished by turns; and the periodical time will be increased and diminished in a ratio compounded of the sesquiplicate ratio of the radius, and of the subduplicate of that ratio in which the centripetal force of the central body T is diminished or increased, by the increase or decrease of the action of the distant body S.

. 7. It also follows, from what was before laid down, that the axis of the ellipsis described by the body P, or the line of the apsides, does as to its angular motion go forwards and backwards by turns, but more forwards than backwards, and by the excess of its direct motion is in the whole carried forwards. For the force with which the body P is urged to the body T at the quadratures, where the force MN vanishes, is compounded of the force LM and the centripetal force with which the body T attracts the body P. The first force LM, if the distance PT be increased, is increased in nearly the same proportion with that distance, and the other force decreases in the duplicate ratio of the distance; and therefore the sum of these two forces decreases in a less than the duplicate ratio of the distance PT; and therefore, by Cor. 1, Prop. XLV, will make the line of the apsides, or, which is the same thing, the upper apsis, to go backward. But at the conjunction and opposition the force with which the body P is urged towards the body T is the difference of the force KL, and of the force with which the body T attracts the body P; and that difference, because the force KL is very nearly increased in the ratio of the distance PT, decreases in more than the duplicate ratio of the distance PT; and therefore, by Cor. 1, Prop. XLV, causes the line of the apsides to go forwards. In the places between the syzygies and the quadratures, the motion