Page:On the connexion of the physical sciences (1834).djvu/19

Rh Newton proved that a body projected in space will move in a conic section, if it be attracted by a force directed towards a fixed point, and having an intensity inversely as the square of the distance; but that any deviation from that law will cause it to move in a curve of a different nature. Kepler ascertained, by direct observation, that the planets describe ellipses round the sun; and later observations show that comets also move in conic sections: it consequently follows that the sun attracts all the planets and comets inversely as the square of their distances from his centre; the sun, therefore, is the centre of a force extending indefinitely in space, and including all the bodies of the system in its action.

Kepler also deduced from observation, that the squares of the periodic times of the planets, or the times of their revolutions round the sun, are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from his centre: whence it follows that the intensity of gravitation of all the bodies towards the sun is the same at equal distances; consequently gravitation is proportional to the masses, for, if the planets and comets were at equal distances from the sun, and left to the effects of gravity, they would arrive at his surface at the same time. The satellites also gravitate to their primaries according to the same law that their primaries do to the sun.