Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/98

84 second in that of the common surface of the solid and fluid, and the third in that of the exposed surface of the solid. Now, supposing the angle of the fluid to be obtuse, the whole superficial cohesion of the fluid being represented by the radius, the part which acts in the direction of the surface of the solid will be proportional to the cosine of the inclination; and this force, added to the force of the solid, will be equal to the force of the common surface of the solid and fluid, or to the differences of their forces; consequently, the cosine added to twice the force of the solid, will be equal to the whole force of the fluid, or to the radius: hence the force of the solid is represented by half the difference between the cosine and the radius, or by half the versed sine; or, if the force of the fluid be represented by the diameter, the whole versed sine will indicate the force of the solid. And the same result follows when the angle of the fluid is acute. Hence we may infer, that if the solid have half the attractive force of the fluid, the surfaces will be perpendicular; and this seems in itself reasonable, since two rectangular edges of the solid are equally near to the angular particles with one of the fluid, and we may expect a fluid to rise and adhere to the surface of every solid more than half as attractive as itself; a conclusion which has already inferred, in a different manner, from principles which he has but cursorily investigated, in his treatise on the figure of the earth.

The versed sine varies as the square of the sine of half the angle: the force must therefore be as the square of the height to which the fluid may be elevated in contact with a horizontal surface, or nearly as the square of the number of grains expressing the apparent cohesion. Thus, according to the experiments of, on the suppositions already premised,