432 The Phcenomena of Gravitation proved to be proximate 

 35 E 



Suppose A to be a place on the earth's surface, from which, by 

 muscular or explosive force, a stone is projected towards D, at 

 sixteen feet and an inch above A. Suppose that a second of time 

 elapses while the stone is ascending from A to D, then it is evi- 

 dent that the point A will in that second be carried forward, by 

 the orbicular motion of the earth, 100,000 feet, or to C ; that 

 is to say, the point A will fnove 100,000 feet while the ball is 

 ascending sixteen feet and an inch : consequently the ball will, 

 in truth, not ascend in space from A to D, but will be carried 

 in an oblique line from A to E, moving upwards as it proceeds. 

 The two forces — that which carries it from A to C, and that 

 which carries it towards D, — are as 100,000 to 1(3 jJ^-, or as 6000 

 to 1 nearly. 



The stone having arrived at E, it is then known, by the phae- 

 nomcnon, to fall to the earth in a second of time ; yet it does 

 not fall through EC, but, while falling, is carried, by the orbi- 

 cular motion, through 100,000 feet to B, in the diagonal EB. 



Such a diagonal course as A£ is therefore, in point of fact, 

 generated by every projectile, while it is rising to any given height 

 in the atmosphere; but, as the spectator is carried ivith the pro- 

 jectile, he merely measures its novel and peculiar motions, and 

 is incapable of observing the orbicular motion, of which he par- 

 takes in common with the ]n-ojectile. Tlie projectile is not, 

 however, the less subject to the force of the orbicular motion, 

 because it is not perceived or felt by a spectator at rest ; but, as 

 a body put into motion by novel forces, acting in opposing di- 

 rections, its novel state of opposing motion is liable to be affected 

 bv all opposing forces simultaneously existing in nature ; and, 

 when its novel force is exhausted or destroyed at E, it becomes 

 the patient of the great natural forces, which, in moving the 

 earth and atmosphere from A to B, move it likewise, as part of 

 the system. 



The projectile having however ascended to E, a difficulty arises 

 in regard to the origin of the force which deflects it from the 

 summit at E towards B. Why does it not move for ever in the 

 parallel DE ? '^Vhat is the original force that turns it aside ? Is 

 that force required to be equal to the weight of the body; or 

 what proportion of that force, and how is it generated ? 



It appears by the fact that the whole force which was neces- 

 sary to cause it to fall through the UixV ^'^^t, is but a GOOOdth 

 part of the orbicular momentum ; consequently the deflection of 

 16 feet forms but an angle of 20 seconds at A and at B. The 



nascent 



