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again to some configuration belonging to the undisturbed path, in a finite time, and without more than an infinitely small digression. If this condition is not fulfilled, the motion is said to be unstable.

302. For example, if a body, A, be supported on a fixed vertical axis; if a second, B, be supported on a parallel axis belonging to the first; a third, C, similarly supported on B, and so on; and if B, C, etc., be so placed as to have each its centre of inertia as far as possible from the fixed axis, and the whole set in motion with a common angular velocity about this axis, the motion will be stable, from every configuration, as is evident from the principles regarding the resultant centrifugal force on a rigid body, to be proved later. If, for instance, each of the bodies is a flat rectangular board hinged on one edge, it is obvious that the whole system will be kept stable by centrifugal force, when all are in one plane and as far out from the axis as possible. But if A consist partly of a shaft and crank, as a common spinning-wheel, or the fly-wheel and crank of a steamengine, and if B be supported on the crank-pin as axis, and turned inwards (towards the fixed axis, or across the fixed axis), then, even although the centres of inertia of C, D, etc., are placed as far from the fixed axis as possible, consistent with this position of B, the motion of the system will be unstable.

303. The rectilinear motion of an elongated body lengthwise, or of a flat disc edgewise, through a fluid is unstable. But the motion of either body, with its length or its broadside perpendicular to the direction of motion, is stable. Observation proves the assertion we have just made, for real fluids, air and water, and for a great variety of circumstances affecting the motion; and we shall return to the subject later, as being not only of great practical importance, but profoundly interesting, and by no means difficult in theory.

304. The motion of a single particle affords simpler and not less instructive illustrations of stability and instability. Thus if a weight, hung from a fixed point by a light inextensible cord, be set in motion so as to describe a circle about a vertical line through its position of equilibrium, its motion is stable. For, as we shall see later, if dis-turbed infinitely little in direction without gain or loss of energy, it will describe a sinuous path, cutting the undisturbed circle at points successively distant from one another by definite fractions of the circumference, depending upon the angle of inclination of the string to the vertical. When this angle is very small, the motion is sensibly the same as that of a particle confined to one plane and moving under the influence of an attractive force towards a fixed point, simply proportional to the distance; and the disturbed path cuts the undisturbed circle four times in a revolution. Or if a particle confined to one plane, move under the influence of a centre in this plane, attracting with a force inversely as the square of the distance, a path infinitely little disturbed from a circle will cut the circle twice in a revolution. Or if the law of central force be the nth power of the distance, and if n+3 be positive, the disturbed path will cut the undisturbed circular

π

√n+

n> 3.

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orbit at successive angular intervals, each equal to +3 motion will be unstable if n be negative, and 305. The case of a particle moving on a smooth fixed surface under the influence of no other force than that of the constraint, and therefore always moving along a geodetic line of the surface, affords extremely simple illustrations of stability and instability. For instance, a particle placed on the inner circle of the surface of an anchor-ring, and projected in the plane of the ring, would move perpetually in that circle, but unstably, as the smallest disturbance would clearly send it away from this path, never to return until after a digression round the outer edge. (We suppose of course that the particle is held to the surface, as if it were placed in the infinitely narrow space between a solid ring and a hollow one enclosing it.) But if a particle is placed on the outermost, or greatest, circle of the ring, and projected in its plane, an infinitely small disturbance will cause it to describe a sinuous path cutting the circle at points round it successively distant by angles each equal to π and therefore at intervals of time, each equal to b √, where a denotes the radius of that circle, w the angular velocity

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in it, and b the radius of the circular cross section of the ring.

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is proved by remarking that an infinitely narrow band from the outermost part of the ring has, at each point, a and b from its principal radii of curvature, and therefore (§ 134) has for its geodetic lines the great circles of a sphere of radius ab, upon which it may be bent.

306. In all these cases the undisturbed motion has been circular or rectilineal, and, when the motion has been stable, the effect of a disturbance has been periodic, or recurring with the same phases in equal successive intervals of time. An illustration of thoroughly stable motion in which the effect of a disturbance is not 'periodic,' is presented by a particle sliding down an inclined groove under the action of gravity. To take the simplest case, we may consider a particle sliding down along the lowest straight line of an inclined hollow cylinder. If slightly disturbed from this straight line, it will oscillate on each side of it perpetually in its descent, but not with a uniform periodic motion, though the durations of its excursions to each side of the straight line are all equal.

307. A very curious case of stable motion is presented by a particle constrained to remain on the surface of an anchor-ring fixed in a vertical plane, and projected along the great circle from any point of it, with any velocity. An infinitely small disturbance will give rise to a disturbed motion of which the path will cut the vertical circle over and over again for ever, at unequal intervals of time, and unequal angles of the circle; and obviously not recurring periodically in any cycle, except with definite particular values for the whole energy, some of which are less and an infinite number are greater than that which just suffices to bring the particle to the highest point of the ring. The

full mathematical investigation of these circumstances would afford an excellent exercise in the theory of differential equations, but it is not necessary for our present illustrations.

308. In this case, as in all of stable motion with only two degrees of freedom, which we have just considered, there has been stability throughout the motion; and an infinitely small disturbance from any point of the motion has given a disturbed path which intersects the undisturbed path over and over again at finite intervals of time. But, for the sake of simplicity, at present confining our attention to two degrees of freedom, we have a limited stability in the motion of an unresisted projectile, which satisfies the criterion of stability only at points of its upward, not of its downward, path. Thus if MOPQ be the path of a projectile, and if at O it be disturbed by an infinitely

P

M

small force either way perpendicular to its instantaneous direction of motion, the disturbed path will cut the undisturbed infinitely near the point P where the direction of motion is perpendicular to that at 0 : as we easily see by considering that the line joining two particles projected from one point at the same instant with equal velocities in the directions of any two lines, will always remain perpendicular to the line bisecting the angle between these two.

309. The principle of varying action gives a mathematical criterion for stability or instability in every case of motion. Thus in the first place it is obvious (§§ 308, 311), that if the action is a true minimum in the motion of a system from any one configuration to the configuration reached at any other time, however much later, the motion is thoroughly unstable. For instance, in the motion of a particle constrained to remain on a smooth fixed surface, and uninfluenced by gravity, the action is simply the length of the path, multiplied by the constant velocity. Hence in the particular case of a particle uninfluenced by gravity, moving round the inner circle in the plane of an

π

On

anchor-ring considered above, the action, or length of path, is clearly a minimum for any one point to the point reached at any subsequent time. (The action is not merely a minimum, but is the least possible, from any point of the circular path to any other, through less than half a circumference of the circle.) On the other hand, although the path from any point in the greatest circle of the ring to any other at a distance from it along the circle, less than ab, is clearly least possible if along the circumference; the path of absolutely least length is not along the circumference between two points at a greater circular distance than ab from one another, nor is the path along the circumference between them a minimum at all in this latter case. any surface whatever which is everywhere anticlastic, or along a geodetic of any surface which passes altogether through an anticlastic region, the motion is thoroughly unstable. For if it were stable from any point 0, we should have the given undisturbed path, and the disturbed path from O cutting it at some point Q-two different geodetic lines joining two points; which is impossible on any anticlastic surface, inasmuch as the sum of the exterior angles of any closed figure of geodetic lines exceeds four right angles when the integral curvature of the enclosed area is negative, which is the case for every portion of surface thoroughly anticlastic. But, on the other hand, it is easily proved that if we have an endless rigid band of curved surface everywhere synclastic, with a geodetic line running through its middle, the motion of a particle projected along this line will be stable throughout, and an infinitely slight disturbance will give a disturbed path cutting the given undisturbed path again and again for ever at successive distances differing according to the different specific curvatures of the intermediate portions of the surface.

310. If, from any one configuration, two courses differing infinitely little from one another, have again a configuration in common, this second configuration will be called a kinetic focus relatively to the first or (because of the reversibility of the motion) these two configurations will be called conjugate kinetic foci. Optic foci, if for a moment we adopt the corpuscular theory of light, are included as a particular case of kinetic foci in general. But it is not difficult to prove that there must be finite intervals of space and time between two conjugate foci in every motion of every kind of system, only provided the kinetic energy does not vanish.

311. Now it is obvious that, provided only a sufficiently short course is considered, the action, in any natural motion of a system, is less than for any other course between its terminal configurations. It will be proved presently (§ 318) that the first configuration up to which the action, reckoned from a given initial configuration, ceases, to be a minimum, is the first kinetic focus; and conversely, that when the first kinetic focus is passed, the action, reckoned from the initial configuration, ceases to be a minimum; and therefore of course can never again be a minimum, because a course of shorter action,

deviating infinitely little from it, can be found for a part, without altering the remainder of the whole, natural course.

312. In such statements as this it will frequently be convenient to indicate particular configurations of the system by single letters, as O, P, Q, R; and any particular course, in which it moves through configurations thus indicated, will be called the course O...P...Q...R. The action in any natural course will be denoted simply by the terminal letters, taken in the order of the motion. Thus OR will denote the action from 0 to R; and therefore OR-RO. When there are more real natural courses from 0 to R than one, the analytical expression for OR will have more than one real value; and it may be necessary to specify for which of these courses the action is reckoned. Thus we may have

OR for 0.... .E...R,
OR for 0...E...R,

OR for 0...E"...R,

three different values of one algebraic irrational expression.

313. In terms of this notation the preceding statement (§ 311) may be expressed thus:-If, for a conservative system, moving on a certain course 0... P... O... P', the first kinetic focus conjugate to O be O', the action OP, in this course, will be less than the action along any other course deviating infinitely little from it: but, on the other hand, OP' is greater than the actions in some courses from O to P' deviating infinitely little from the specified natural course 0...P... O... P'.

314. It must not be supposed that the action along OP is necessarily the least possible from 0 to P. There are, in fact, cases in which the action ceases to be least of all possible, before a kinetic focus is reached. Thus if OEAPOEA' be a sinuous geodetic line cutting the outer circle of an anchor-ring, or the equator of an oblate spheroid, in successive points O, A, A', it is easily seen that O, the first kinetic focus conjugate to O, must lie somewhat beyond A. But the length OEAP, although a minimum (a stable position for a stretched string), is not the shortest distance on the surface from O to P, as this must obviously be a line lying entirely on one side

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