Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 edition. Excerpt: ... posing it to be hard enough to hold the stroke, so as to impel it along with ny i iuli'tiniti% degree of swiftness. Let the laws of gravity and motion be mentioned; and let it be a postulatum inserted, that these laws hold universally, in all bodies, great or.small, at how great distance soever, and however disproportionate I'nsialatnm 1. In every body, or part of a body, however small, there is a middle, between the two extremes of that body, or that part of a body. Pottulatim 2. That there may be bodies of any indefinite degree of smallness. That is, in any of these infinite divisions of matter, it is possible that matter, or body, may extend so far as the extremes of that part, and no farther; and then that part will be a distinct body. For instance: Let the body, A It. b by you supposed to be as small, as it is possible for a body to bo: no doubt but there is a middle between the two extremes of that body, how email soever it be, as at C. Now we C moan, that it is pcsaible that matter may not extend any further, than to the extremes of the half of that body, or only from B to C. So that it is possible, that there may be a body smaller than A B, however nail that is. PnMulUum 3. That there is no degree of swiftness of motion, but what Ib possible. For instance, suppose the body, A B, to be fixed at the point B, and to move round the point B, in an hour. /) If the body, A B, be made as long again, yet it is possible it // may be moved round in an hour: so let it be made never so // long. Thus it is manifest, that the longer it is, the swifter // doth the further extreme move.. &/ Pottulatum. That the separating of bodies, or the parts of bodies, which touch each other, is always by Divulsion, or falling asunder. That is, if, ...