MATTER IN MOTION 



101 



ance, be nearer the center and less curved, as 

 you have drawn it." I then go to a mathemati- 

 cian, who says: "In the upper diagram the 



Figure 19 



right-hand curve is a hyperbola, and if you 

 obtain the algebraic equation which represents 

 the position of its several points, that same 

 equation will give the points of the left-hand 

 curve which you have drawn. One branch of the 

 hyperbola suggests, and you might say causes, 

 the other branch; either of them is by itself as 

 incomplete as a semicircle." 



Finally I approach a physicist, who says: 



