SCIENCE 



Friday, Septembee 5, 1913 

 contents 



The Orbits of Freely Falling Bodies: Pbesi- 



DENT K. S. WOODWAED 315 



Functions and Limitations of the Governing 

 Board: Peesikent Edwin Boone Craig- 

 head 319 



Indian Remains in Maine 326 



Bonaparte Research Fund Grants 327 



Scientific Notes and News 3C8 



University and Educational News 330 



Discussion and Correspondence: — • 



Agricultural Extension: A. N. Hume. A 

 New Attachment for the Harvard Kymo- 

 graphion: T. L. Patterson. Accuracy in 

 Stating the Occurrence of Species: Mars- 

 den Manson. "Quite a Few": T. G. 

 Dabney 331 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Henderson on the Fitness of the Environ- 

 ment: Professor Ealph S. Lillie. Freud 

 on the Interpretation of Dreams: C. Mac- 

 FiE Campbell. Numerical Constants: Pro- 



. PESSOE Heney S. Carhart 337 



Special Articles: — 



The Influence of Substratum Heterogeneity 

 upon Experimental Results: Dr. J. Aethur 

 Harris 345 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 'reTiew should be sent to Professor J, McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE OBBITS OF FREELY FALLING BODIES 

 The path described by a body falling 

 freely from a considerable height above the 

 surface of the earth presents a problem of 

 interest alike to the mathematical and to 

 the experimental physicist. The former 

 sees in it a capital application of the prin- 

 ciples of "relative motion"^ and the latter 

 sees in it a promising way of demonstra- 

 ting the rotation of the earth. It has at- 

 tracted perennial attention for more than 

 a century and has been frequently referred 

 to in this journal during the past decade. 

 The mechanical aspects of this problem 

 were first carefully considered by Gauss 

 and Laplace one hundred and ten years 

 ago. Gauss's equations of motion for a 

 falling body were furnished in a letter to 

 Benzenberg, who was interested especially 

 in the proper interpretation of experi- 

 mental results. Gauss's solution of the 

 problem is now accessible in the fifth vol- 

 ume of his collected works. He concluded 

 that in addition to the obvious easterly 

 deviation there should be a small meridi- 

 onal deviation towards the equator from 

 the plumb line defined by a bob suspended 

 from the initial position of the body and 

 normal to some plane of reference below. 

 It seems probable that this latter conclu- 

 sion prompted Laplace to reinvestigate the 

 subject, for he published a very remarkable 

 paper in May, 1803, in the Bulletin de la, 



' This means only that account must be taken 

 of the variations in position of some of the axes 

 or planes of reference with the lapse of time. 

 Why such motion should have been called "rela- 

 tive ' ' and the less complex motion called ' ' abso- 

 lute" is a question worthy of investigation in the 

 history of mechanics. 



