280 THE FIGURES OF EQUILIBRIUM OF A LIQUID MASS 



I reunited the two masses to which it had given rise, and again formed the 

 cylinder,* in order to proceed to a new measure of the time. 



The number of seconds are given beh)w ; each expresses the time which 

 elapsed from the moment of the transformation of the cylinder to that of the 

 rupture of the line. These periods were determined by means of a v/atch, which 

 beat the |ths of a second. 



It is evident that the numbers relating to the same diameter do not difFe 

 sufficiently from each other to prevent our regarding the proportion of the two 

 means as clo!>cly approximating to- the true proportion of the durations. Now the 

 proportion of these tAvo means is 2.04, i. e., almost exactly equal to that of the two 

 diameters. ]\Ioreovcr, it is evident that in the case of each of the latter the 

 greatest of the numbers obtained must correspond to that case \vhere the cylinder 

 is formed in the most perfect manner; consequently it is probable that the pro- 

 portion of these two greatest numbers also closely approximates to the true 

 proportion of' the durations. Now, these two numbers are, on the one hand 

 36.4, and on the other 73.6, and their proportion is 2.02, which number differs 

 still less from 2, or from the proportion of the diameters. 



We may, therefore, adroit that the durations relating to these two cylinders 

 are to cacli other as their diameters; whence we deduce this law, that the par- 

 tial duration of the transformation of a cylinder of the same kind is in proportion 

 to its diameter. 



1 have said (§ 64) that the law thus obtained would of itself furnish a new 

 motive for believing that it would not change if our short cylinders of oil were 

 produced in vacuo or in air. In fact the proportionality to the diameter is the 

 simplest possible law; and, on the other hand, the circumstances under which 

 the phenomenon is produced are less simple iu the case of the presence of the 

 alcoholic liquid than they would be in that of its absence; consequent!};, if the 

 law changed from the first to the second, it w^ould follow that a simplification 

 in the circumstances would, on the contrary, induce a complication of the law, 

 •which is not very probable. 

 ^1 • '_ ' 



* Tliis was cffcoteJ by conducting the large mass towards tbe small one, by means of the 

 ring (;f which I sjioke in the first note Iu paiagia])h 4G. But care must be taken to prevent 

 the ling, on soiiajating from the liquid liguie, from carrying a^ay with it any perceptible 

 quantity i.if oil ; for this purpose, instead of making the entire ring adiiere to the great mass, 

 1 left a small jiortion of ihe latter free, and, as its action was then insufficient to make the 

 large mass reach the other, 1 aided it by gently pushing the oil with the extremity of the 

 point of the syringe. On withdrawing the ring alter the reunion of the two masses, only a 

 very small sphernle of oil separated from it in the alcoholic liquid, which in the next experi- 

 ment I again united to" the rest of the oil by means of the ring itself, as also the largest of 

 the spherules arising from the transformation of the line. 



