Page:Newton's Principia (1846).djvu/575

 By trigonometry thus. In the triangle CGD all the angles and the side CD are given, and from thence its remaining sides are found; and from the given ratios the lines GF and BE are also given.

To find and represent by a linear description the hourly motion of a comet to any given time.

From observations of the best credit, let three longitudes of the comet be given, and, supposing ATR, RTB, to be their differences, let the hourly motion be required to the time of the middle observation TR. By Lem II, draw the right line ARB, so as its intercepted parts AR, RB, may be



as the times between the observations; and if we suppose a body in the whole time to describe the whole line AB with an equal motion, and to be in the mean time viewed from the place T, the apparent motion of that body about the point R will be nearly the same with that of the comet at the time of the observation TR.

The same more accurately.

Let Ta, Tb, be two longitudes given at a greater distance on one side and on the other; and by Lem. II draw the right line aRb so as its intercepted parts aR, Rb may be as the times between the observations aTR, RTb. Suppose this to cut the lines TA, TB, in D and E; and because the error of the inclination TRa increases nearly in the duplicate ratio of the time between the observations, draw FRG, so as either the angle DRF may be to the angle ARF, or the line DF to the line AF, in the duplicate ratio of the whole time between the observations aTB to the whole time between the observations ATB, and use the line thus found FG in place of the line AB found above.

It will be convenient that the angles ATR, RTB, aTA, BTb, be no less than of ten or fifteen degrees, the times corresponding no greater than