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JOURNAL 



O F 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



yuir, 1801. 



ARTICLE I. 



Outlines of Experiments and Inquiries refpeBing Sound and Light. By ThOMAS YouhG, 



M.D. F. R. S. 



{Concluded from page 9 1.) 

 XIII. Of the Vibrations of Chords. 



B 



\Y a fingular overfight in the detnonftration of Dr. Brook Taylor, adopted as it has 

 been by a number of later authors, it is aflerted, that if a chord be once infleded into any 

 other form than that of the harmonic curve, it will, fince thofe parts which are without 

 this figure are impelled towards it by an cxcefs of force, and thofe within it by a deficiency, 

 in a very (hort time arrive at or very near the form of this precife curve. It would be eafy 

 to prove, if this reafoning were allowed, that the form of the curve can be no other than 

 that of the axis, fince the tending force is continually impelling the chord towards this line. 

 The cafe is very fimllar to that of the Newtonian propofition refpefting found. It may 

 be proved, that every impulfe is communicated along a tended chord with an uniform 

 velocity ; and this velocity is the fame which is inferred from Dr. Taylor's theorem; juft 

 as that of found, determined by other methods, coincides with the Newtonian refult. 

 Vol. v.— July 1801. R But, 



