II. On the Rotatory Motion of Bodies. 
By WILLIAM WHEWELL, M.A. E.RS 
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
[Read May 6, 1822.] 
Tue mechanical Problem of the rotation of a body of any 
form under given circumstances, is one of some difficulty. It is 
remarkable, not only for the errors into which Mathematicians 
of great eminence have been led in treating it, but for being 
almost the only instance where there has been a permanent 
difference of opinion among writers, with respect to the results 
of our elementary mechanical laws in a particular case. In fact, 
it seems to present the most striking impeachment of the cer- 
tainty of mathematical investigations which can be found, since 
the opposite conclusions are not obtained by an abstruse and 
complicated process, but arise immediately from different methods 
of applying the same fundamental principles. It may, therefore, 
be of service to solve the question in a manner which reduces 
it to a class of problems about which no doubt was ever enter- 
tained, and such is the object of the present paper. 
It is easily seen that the motion of a body in any manner 
whatever about a centre, leads to considerations somewhat com- 
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