OUTLINES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



Of the Funicular Machine. 



152. If a body fixed to two or more ropes, is 

 sustained by powers which act by means of those 

 ropes, this assemblage is called the Funicular or 

 Rope Machine. 



See VARIGNON", vol. i. p. 93, &c. ; also BOSSUT, Media- 

 nique, art. 120. 



153. If a body is sustained by two forces acting 

 at the ends of two ropes, these forces will be in 

 the inverse ratio of the sines of the angles which 

 their directions make with the direction of the 

 weight ; or directly as the secants of the angles 

 which their directions make with the horizon. 



Hence the sum of the powers is to the weight, as the 

 sum of the sines of the angles which the powers 

 make with the direction of the weight, to the sine 

 of the angle which the powers make with one ano- 

 ther. 



154. If the body is sustained by more than two 

 cords, the powers, by the resolution of forces, may 

 always be reduced to two. 



155. If any number of points be given either in 

 the same or in different planes, and if from their 



common 



