Power, load, distance and time in moving bodies
Seven propositions, with sketches of pulleys and balances
The page states seven numbered propositions relating a motive power to the weight it moves, the distance covered and the time taken. It argues that the same power moves half a body twice as far (or the same distance in half the time), that half the power moves half the body the same distance in the same time, and that a power drives twice or a thousand times the load over the same space in twice or a thousand times the time. The seventh proposition holds that two separate powers moving two separate bodies, once united, move the united bodies over the whole space in the whole time, since the original proportions are preserved; sketches of pulleys and balances at the upper right, labelled b a and c a, accompany the reasoning.
On this page
The same power moves half the load twice as far
If a power moves a body a certain space in a certain time, the same power will move half that body twice that space in the same time; or the same force will move half the body over all that space in half the time.
Half the power, and the uniting of separate powers
Half of such force moves half the body over all that space in the same time, or a hundred times the body over a hundredth of the space. If two separate forces move two separate bodies a given space in a given time, the same forces united move the united bodies over the whole space in the whole time, the first proportions remaining unchanged.
Sketches of pulleys and balances
Figures of pulleys and balances, labelled b a and c a with "first" and "second a n", illustrate the propositions relating power, load, distance and time.