Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/343

 thereon as the circle AB to the sum of the circles AB and EF, or the excess of twice the circle AB above the bottom.

. 7. If in the middle of the hole EF there be placed the little circle PQ described about the centre G, and parallel to the horizon, the weight of water which that little circle sustains is greater than the weight of a third part of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle and its height GH. For let ABNFEM be the cataract or column of falling water whose axis is GH, as above, and let all the water, whose fluidity is not requisite for the ready and quick descent of the water, be supposed to A be congealed, as well round about the cataract, as above the little circle. And let PHQ be the column of water congealed above the little circle, whose vertex is H, and its altitude GH. And suppose this cataract to fall with its whole weight downwards, and not in the least to lie against or to press PHQ, but to glide freely by it without any friction, unless, perhaps, just at the very vertex of the ice, where the cataract at the beginning of its fall may tend to a concave figure. And as the congealed water AMEC, BNFD, lying round the cataract, is convex in its internal superficies AME, BNF, towards the falling cataract, so this column PHQ will be convex towards the cataract also, and will therefore be greater than a cone whose base is that little circle PQ and its altitude GH; that is, greater than a third part of a cylinder described with the same base and altitude. Now that little circle sustains the weight of this column, that is, a weight greater than the weight of the cone, or a third part of the cylinder.

. 8. The weight of water which the circle PQ, when very small, sustains, seems to be less than the weight of two thirds of a cylinder of water whose base is that little circle, and its altitude HG. For, things standing as above supposed, imagine the half of a spheroid described whose base is that little circle, and its semi-axis or altitude HG. This figure will be equal to two thirds of that cylinder, and will comprehend within it the column of congealed water PHQ, the weight of which is sustained by that little circle. For though the motion of the water tends directly downwards, the external superficies of that column must yet meet the base PQ in an angle somewhat acute, because the water in its fall is perpetually accelerated, and by reason of that acceleration become narrower. Therefore, since that angle is less than a right one, this column in the lower parts thereof will lie within the hemi-spheroid. In the upper parts also it will be acute or pointed; because to make it otherwise, the horizontal motion of the water must be at the vertex infinitely more swift than its motion towards the horizon. And the less this circle PQ is, the more acute will