passing through any point moving uniformly in a straight line in any direction, remains constant. From the first of these propositions we infer that the centre of inertia of any number of mutually influencing bodies, if in motion, continues moving uniformly in a straight line, unless in so far as the direction or velocity of its motion is changed by forces acting mutually between them and some other matter not belonging to them; also that the centre of inertia of any body or system of bodies moves just as all their matter, if concentrated in a point, would move under the influence of forces equal and parallel to the forces really acting on its different parts. From the second we infer that the axis of resultant rotation through the centre of inertia of any system of bodies, or through any point either at rest or moving uniformly in a straight line, remains unchanged in direction, and the sum of moments of momenta round it remains constant if the system experiences no force from without. This principle is sometimes called Conservation of Areas, a not very convenient designation. 234. The kinetic energy of any system is equal to the sum of the kinetic energies of a mass equal to the sum of the masses of the system, moving with a velocity equal to that of its centre of inertia, and of the motions of the separate parts relatively to the centre of inertia. Let OI represent the velocity of the centre of inertia, IP that of any point of the system relative to O. Then the actual velocity of that point is OP, and the proof of § 196 applies at once-it being remembered that the mean of IQ, i. e. the mean of the velocities relative to the centre of inertia and parallel to OI, is zero by § 65. 235. The kinetic energy of rotation of a rigid system about any axis is (§§ 55, 179) expressed by mr2w2, where m is the mass of any part, r its distance from the axis, and w the angular velocity of rotation. It may evidently be written in the form w2Emr2. The factor Emr2 is of course (§ 198) the Moment of Inertia of the system about the axis in question. It is worth while to notice that the moment of momentum of any rigid system about an axis, being Emvr=w2mr2, is the product of the angular velocity into the moment of inertia; while, as above, the half product of the moment of inertia by the square of the angular velocity is the kinetic energy. If we take a quantity k, such that k2Ym=Σmr2, is k is called the Radius of Gyration about the axis from which measured. The radius of gyration about any axis is therefore the distance from that axis at which, if the whole mass were placed, it would have the same moment of inertia as before. In a fly-wheel, where it is desirable to have as great a moment of inertia with as small a mass as possible, within certain limits of dimensions, the greater part of the mass is formed into a ring of the largest admissible diameter, and the radius of this ring is then approximately the radius of gyration of the whole. 236. The rate of increase of moment of momentum is thus, in Newton's notation (§ 28), wΣmr2; and, in the case of a body free to rotate about a fixed axis, is equal to the moment of the couple about that axis. Hence a constant couple gives uniform acceleration of angular Couple By § 178 we see that the corresponding Mk2 velocity; or = formula for linear acceleration is s = v = Force 237. For every rigid body there may be described about any point as centre, an ellipsoid (called Poinsot's Momental Ellipsoid) which is such that the length of any radius-vector is inversely proportional to the radius of gyration of the body about that radius-vector as axis. The axes of the ellipsoid are the Principal Axes of inertia of the body at the point in question. When the moments of inertia about two of these are equal, the ellipsoid becomes a spheroid, and the radius of gyration is the same for every axis in the plane of its equator. When all three principal moments are equal, the ellipsoid becomes a sphere, and every axis has the same radius of gyration. 238. The principal axes at any point of a rigid body are normals to the three surfaces of the second order which pass through that point, and are confocal with an ellipsoid, having its centre at the centre of inertia, and its three principal diameters coincident with the three principal axes through these points, and equal respectively to the doubles of the radii of gyration round them. This ellipsoid is called the Central Ellipsoid. 239. A rigid body is said to be kinetically symmetrical about its centre of inertia when its moments of inertia about three principal axes through that point are equal; and therefore necessarily the moments of inertia about all axes through that point equal (§ 237), and all these axes principal axes. About it uniform spheres, cubes, and in general any complete crystalline solid of the first system (see chapter on Properties of Matter) are kinetically symmetrical. A rigid body is kinetically symmetrical about an axis when this axis is one of the principal axes through the centre of inertia, and the moments of inertia about the other two, and therefore about any line in their plane, are equal. A spheroid, a square or equilateral triangular prism or plate, a circular ring, disc, or cylinder, or any complete crystal of the second or fourth system, is kinetically symmetrical about its axis. 240. The foundation of the abstract theory of energy is laid by Newton in an admirably distinct and compact manner in the sentence of his scholium already quoted (§ 229), in which he points out its application to mechanics1. The actio agentis, as he defines it, which is evidently equivalent to the product of the effective component of the force, into the velocity of the point on which it acts, is simply, in modern English phraseology, the rate at which the agent works. The subject for measurement here is precisely the same as that for which Watt, a hundred years later, introduced the practical unit of a 'Horsepower, or the rate at which an agent works when overcoming 33,000 times the weight of a pound through the space of a foot in a minute; that is, producing 550 foot-pounds of work per second. The unit, however, which is most generally convenient is that which Newton's definition implies, namely, the rate of doing work in which the unit of energy is produced in the unit of time. 241. Looking at Newton's words (§ 229) in this light, we see that they may be logically converted into the following form: Work done on any system of bodies (in Newton's statement, the parts of any machine) has its equivalent in work done against friction, molecular forces, or gravity, if there be no acceleration; but if there be acceleration, part of the work is expended in overcoming the resistance to acceleration, and the additional kinetic energy developed is equivalent to the work so spent. This is evident from § 180. When part of the work is done against molecular forces, as in bending a spring; or against gravity, as in raising a weight; the recoil of the spring, and the fall of the weight, are capable at any future time, of reproducing the work originally expended (§ 207). But in Newton's day, and long afterwards, it was supposed that work was absolulely lost by friction; and, indeed, this statement is still to be found even in recent authoritative treatises. But we must defer the examination of this point till we consider in its modern form the principle of Conservation of Energy. 242. If a system of bodies, given either at rest or in motion, be influenced by no forces from without, the sum of the kinetic energies of all its parts is augmented in any time by an amount equal to the whole work done in that time by the mutual forces, which we may imagine as acting between its points. When the lines in which these forces act remain all unchanged in length, the forces do no work, and the sum of the kinetic energies of the whole system remains constant. If, on the other hand, one of these lines varies in length during the motion, the mutual forces in it will do work, or will consume work, according as the distance varies with or against them. 243. A limited system of bodies is said to be dynamically conservative (or simply conservative, when force is understood to be the subject), if the mutual forces between its parts always perform, or always consume, the same amount of work during any motion 1 The reader will remember that we use the word 'mechanics' in its true classical sense, the science of machines, the sense in which Newton himself used it, when he dismissed the further consideration of it by saying (in the scholium referred to), Caeterum mechanicam tractare non est hujus instituti. whatever, by which it can pass from one particular configuration to another. 244. The whole theory of energy in physical science is founded on the following proposition: If the mutual forces between the parts of a material system are independent of their velocities, whether relative to one another, or relative to any external matter, the system must be dynamically conservative. For if more work is done by the mutual forces on the different parts of the system in passing from one particular configuration to another, by one set of paths than by another set of paths, let the system be directed, by frictionless constraint, to pass from the first configuration to the second by one set of paths and return by the other, over and over again for ever. It will be continual source of energy without any consumption of materials, which is impossible. 245. The potential energy of a conservative system, in the configuration which it has at any instant, is the amount of work that its mutual forces perform during the passage of the system from any one chosen configuration to the configuration at the time referred to. It is generally, but not always, convenient to fix the particular configuration chosen for the zero of reckoning of potential energy, so that the potential energy, in every other configuration practically considered, shall be positive. 246. The potential energy of a conservative system, at any instant, depends solely on its configuration at that instant, being, according to definition, the same at all times when the system is brought again and again to the same configuration. It is therefore, in mathematical language, said to be a function of the co-ordinates by which the positions of the different parts of the system are specified. If, for example, we have a conservative system consisting of two material points; or two rigid bodies, acting upon one another with force dependent only on the relative position of a point belonging to one of them, and a point belonging to the other; the potential energy of the system depends upon the co-ordinates of one of these points relatively to lines of reference in fixed directions through the other. It will therefore, in general, depend on three independent co-ordinates, which we may conveniently take as the distance between the two points, and two angles specifying the absolute direction of the line joining them. Thus, for example, let the bodies be two uniform metal globes, electrified with any given quantities of electricity, and placed in an insulating medium such as air, in a region of space under the influence of a vast distant electrified body. The mutual action between these two spheres will depend solely on the relative position of their centres. It will consist partly of gravitation, depending solely on the distance between their centres, and of electric force, which will depend on the distance between them, but also, in virtue of the inductive action of the distant body, will depend on the absolute direction of the line joining their centres. Or again, if the system consist of two balls of soft iron, in any locality of the earth's surface, their mutual action will be partly gravitation, and partly due to the magnetism induced in them by terrestrial magnetic force. The portion of the potential energy depending on the latter cause, will be a function of the distance between their centres and the inclination of this line to the direction of the terrestrial magnetic force. 247. In nature the hypothetical condition of § 243 is apparently violated in all circumstances of motion. A material system can never be brought through any returning cycle of motion without spending more work against the mutual forces of its parts than is gained from these forces, because no relative motion can take place without meeting with frictional or other forms of resistance; among which are included (1) mutual friction between solids sliding upon one another; (2) resistances due to the viscosity of fluids, or imperfect elasticity of solids; (3) resistances due to the induction of electric currents; (4) resistances due to varying magnetization under the influence of imperfect magnetic retentiveness. No motion in nature can take place without meeting resistance due to some, if not to all, of these influences. It is matter of everyday experience that friction and imperfect elasticity of solids impede the action of all artificial mechanisms; and that even when bodies are detached, and left to move freely in the air, as falling bodies, or as projectiles, they experience resistance owing to the viscosity of the air. The greater masses, planets and comets, moving in a less resisting medium, show less indications of resistance 1. Indeed it cannot be said that observation upon any one of these bodies, with the possible exception of Encke's comet, has demonstrated resistance. But the analogies of nature, and the ascertained facts of physical science, forbid us to doubt that every one of them, every star, and every body of any kind moving in any part of space, has its relative motion impeded by the air, gas, vapour, medium, or whatever we choose to call the substance occupying the space immediately round it; just as the motion of a rifle-bullet is impeded by the resistance of the air. 248. There are also indirect resistances, owing to friction impeding the tidal motions, on all bodies which, like the earth, have portions of their free surfaces covered by liquid, which, as long as these bodies move relatively to neighbouring bodies, must keep drawing off energy from their relative motions. Thus, if we consider, in the first place, the action of the moon alone, on the earth with its oceans, lakes, and rivers, we perceive that it must tend to equalize the periods of the earth's rotation about its axis, and of the revolution of the two bodies about their centre of inertia; because as long as these periods differ, the tidal action of the earth's surface must keep subtracting energy from their motions. To view the subject more in detail, and, at the same time, to avoid unnecessary complications, let us suppose the 1 Newton, Principia. (Remarks on the first law of motion.) Majora autem Planetarum et Cometarum corpora motus suos et progressivos et circulares, in spatiis minus resistentibus factos, conservant diutius.' |