Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/223

 of the body A towards B. But the accelerative attraction of the body B towards A is to the accelerative attraction of the body A towards B as the mass of the body A to the mass of the body B; because the motive forces which (by the 2d, 7th, and 8th Definition) are as the accelerative forces and the bodies attracted conjunctly are here equal to one another by the third Law. Therefore the absolute attractive force of the body A is to the absolute attractive force of the body B as the mass of the body A to the mass of the body B.  Q.E.D.

. 1. Therefore if each of the bodies of the system A, B, C, D, &c. does singly attract all the rest with accelerative forces that are reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the attracting body, the absolute forces of all those bodies will be to each other as the bodies themselves.

. 2. By a like reasoning, if each of the bodies of the system A, B, C, D, &c., do singly attract all the rest with accelerative forces, which are either reciprocally or directly in the ratio of any power whatever of the distances from the attracting body; or which are defined by the distances from each of the attracting bodies according to any common law; it is plain that the absolute forces of those bodies are as the bodies themselves.

. 3. In a system of bodies whose forces decrease in the duplicate ratio of the distances, if the lesser revolve about one very great one in ellipses, having their common focus in the centre of that great body, and of a figure exceedingly accurate; and moreover by radii drawn to that great body describe areas proportional to the times exactly; the absolute forces of those bodies to each other will be either accurately or very nearly in the ratio of the bodies. And so on the contrary. This appears from Cor. of Prop. XLVIII, compared with the first Corollary of this Prop.

These Propositions naturally lead us to the analogy there is between centripetal forces, and the central bodies to which those forces used to be directed; for it is reasonable to suppose that forces which are directed to bodies should depend upon the nature and quantity of those bodies, as we see they do in magnetical experiments. And when such cases occur, we are to compute the attractions of the bodies by assigning to each of their particles its proper force, and then collecting the sum of them all. I here use the word attraction in general for any endeavour, of what kind soever, made by bodies to approach to each other; whether that endeavour arise from the action of the bodies themselves, as tending mutually to or agitating each other by spirits emitted; or whether it arises from the action of the aether or of the air, or of any medium whatsoever, whether corporeal or incorporeal, any how impelling bodies placed therein towards each other. In the same general sense I use the word impulse, not defining in this treatise the species or physical qualities of forces, but investigating the quantities