Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/317

 therefore, these velocities be expressed by those perpendiculars DE, de; and let DF be the velocity which it acquires in D by falling from B in the resisting medium. And if from the centre C with the interval CF we describe the circle FfM meeting the right lines de and AB in f and M, then M will be the place to which it would thenceforward, without farther resistance, ascend, and df the velocity it would acquire in d. Whence, also, if Fg represent the moment of the velocity which the body D, in describing the least space Dd, loses by the resistance of the medium; and CN be taken equal to Cg; then will N be the place to which the body, if it met no farther resistance, would thenceforward ascend, and MN will be the decrement of the ascent arising from the loss of that velocity. Draw Fm perpendicular to df, and the decrement Fg of the velocity DF generated by the resistance DK will be to the increment fm of the same velocity, generated by the force CD, as the generating force DK to the generating force CD. But because of the similar triangles Fmf, Fhg, FDC, fm is to Fm or Dd as CD to DF; and, ex æquo, Fg to Dd as DK to DF. Also Fh is to Fg as DF to CF; and, ex æquo perturbatè, Fh or MN to Dd as DK to CF or CM; and therefore the sum of all the MN $$\scriptstyle \times$$ CM will be equal to the sum of all the Dd $$\scriptstyle \times$$ DK. At the moveable point M suppose always a rectangular ordinate erected equal to the indeterminate CM, which by a continual motion is drawn into the whole length Aa; and the trapezium described by that motion, or its equal, the rectangle Aa $$\scriptstyle \times$$ ½aB, will be equal to the sum of all the MN $$\scriptstyle \times$$ CM, and therefore to the sum of all the Dd $$\scriptstyle \times$$ DK, that is, to the area BKVTa. Q.E.D.

. Hence from the law of resistance, and the difference Aa of the arcs Ca, CB, may be collected the proportion of the resistance to the gravity nearly.

For if the resistance DK be uniform, the figure BKTa will be a rectangle under Ba and DK; and thence the rectangle under ½Ba and Aa will be equal to the rectangle under Ba and DK, and DK will be equal to ½Aa. Wherefore since DK is the exponent of the resistance, and the length of the pendulum the exponent of the gravity, the resistance will be to the gravity as ½Aa to the length of the pendulum; altogether as in Prop. XXVIII is demonstrated.

If the resistance be as the velocity, the figure BKTa will be nearly an ellipsis. For if a body, in a non-resisting medium, by one entire oscillation, should describe the length BA, the velocity in any place D would be as the ordinate DE of the circle described on the diameter AB. Therefore since Ba in the resisting medium, and BA in the non-resisting one, are described nearly in the same times; and therefore the velocities in each of the points of Ba are to the velocities in the correspondent points of the length BA nearly as Ba is to BA, the velocity in the point D in the resisting