Newton's Definition 5

  1. I'm reading Newton's Definition 5. This is the complete text copied from Cohen, p. 405.
    1. Definition 5: Centripetal force is the force by which bodies are drawn from all sides, are impelled, or in any way tend, toward some point as to a center.
    2. One force of this kind is gravity, by which bodies tend toward the center of the earth; another is magnetic force, by which iron seeks a lodestone; and yet another is that force, whatever it may be, by which the planets are continually drawn back from rectilinear motions and compelled to revolve in curved lines.
    3. A stone whirled in a sling endeavors to leave the hand that is whirling it, and by its endeavor it stretches the sling, doing so the more strongly the more swiftly it revolves; and as soon as it is released, it flies away. The force opposed to that endeavor, that is, the force by which the sling continually draws the stone back toward the hand and keeps in orbit, I call centripetal, since it is directed toward the hand as toward the center of an orbit.
    4. And the same applies to all bodies that are made to move in orbits. They all endeavor to recede from the centers of their orbits, and unless some force opposed to that endeavor is present, restraining them and keeping them in orbits and hence called by me centripetal, they will go off in straight lines with uniform motion.
    5. If a projectile were deprived of the force of gravity, it would not be deflected toward the earth but would go off in a straight line into the heavens and do so with uniform motion, provided that the resistance of the air were removed.
    6. The projectile, by its gravity, is drawn back from a rectilinear course and continually deflected toward the earth, and this is so to a greater or lesser degree in proportion to its gravity and its velocity of motion.
    7. The less its gravity in proportion to its quantity of matter, or the greater the velocity with which it is projected, the less it will deviate from a rectilenear course and the farther it will go.
    8. If a lead ball were projected with a given velocity along a horizontal line from the top of some mountain by the force of gunpowder and went in a curved line for a distance of two miles before falling to the earth, then the same ball projected with twice the velocity would go about twice as far and with ten times the velocity about ten times as far, provided that the resistance of the air were removed.
    9. And by increasing the velocity, the distance to which it would be projected could be increased at will and the curvature of the line that it would describe could be decreased, in such a way that it would finally fall at a distance of 10 or 30 or 90 degrees or even go around the whole earth or, lastly, go off into the heavens and continue indefinitely in this motion.
    10. And in the same way that a projectile could, by the force of gravity, be deflected into an orbit and go around the whole earth, so too the moon, whether by the force of gravity –if it has gravity– or by any other force by which it may be urged toward the earth, can always be drawn back toward the earth from a rectilinear course and deflected into its orbit; and without such a force the moon cannot be kept in its orbit.
    11. If this force were too small, it would not deflect the moon sufficiently from a rectilinear course; if it were too great, it would deflect the moon excessively and draw it down from its orbit toward the earth.
    12. In fact, it must be just the right magnitude, and mathematicians have the task of finding the force by which a body can be kept exactly in any given orbit with a given velocity and, alternatively, to find the curvilinear path into which a body leaving any given place with a given velocity is deflected by a given force.
    13. The quantity of centripetal force is of three kinds: absolute, accelerative, and motive.

Date: 2021-11-04 Thu 00:00

Created: 2022-08-21 Sun 18:14

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