composition of S. H. M. Examples of the two component tides is 3.95 lunar hours. That is to say, there would be maximum advance of the time of high water 41 days after, and maximum retardation the same number of days before, spring tides (compare § 811). in one line. Mechanism for com S. H. motions in one line. 61. We may consider next the case of equal amplitudes in the two given motions. If their periods are equal, their resultant is a simple harmonic motion, whose phase is at every instant the mean of their phases, and whose amplitude is equal to twice the amplitude of either multiplied by the cosine of half the difference of their phases. The resultant is of course nothing when their phases differ by half the period, and is a motion of double amplitude and of phase the same as theirs when they are of the same phase. When their periods are very nearly, but not quite, equal (their amplitudes being still supposed equal), the motion passes very slowly from the former (zero, or no motion at all) to the latter, and back, in a time equal to that in which the faster has gone once oftener through its period than the slower has. In practice we meet with many excellent examples of this case, which will, however, be more conveniently treated of when we come to apply kinetic principles to various subjects in acoustics, physical optics, and practical mechanics; such as the sympathy of pendulums or tuning-forks, the rolling of a turret ship at sea, the marching of troops over a suspension bridge, etc. 62. If any number of pulleys be so placed that a cord pounding passing from a fixed point half round each of them has its free parts all in parallel lines, and if their centres be moved with simple harmonic motions of any ranges and any periods in lines parallel to those lines, the unattached end of the cord moves with a complex harmonic motion equal to twice the sum of the given simple harmonic motions. This is the principle of Sir W. Thomson's tide-predicting machine, constructed by the British Association, and ordered to be placed in South Kensington Museum, availably for general use in calculating beforehand for any port or other place on the sea for which the simple harmonic constituents of the tide have been determined by the "harmonic analysis" applied to representa previous observations*. We may exhibit, graphically, any case Graphical of single or compound simple harmonic motion in one line by tion of curves in which the abscissæ represent intervals of time, and the motions in harmonic one line. * See British Association Tidal Committee's Report, 1868, 1872, 1875. representa tion of harmonic one line. Graphical ordinates the corresponding distances of the moving point from its mean position. In the case of a single simple harmonic motions in motion, the corresponding curve would be that described by the point P in § 53, if, while Q maintained its uniform circular motion, the circle were to move with uniform velocity in any direction perpendicular to OA. This construction gives the harmonic curve, or curves of sines, in which the ordinates are proportional to the sines of the abscissæ, the straight line in which O moves being the axis of abscissæ. It is the simplest possible form assumed by a vibrating string. When the harmonic motion is complex, but in one line, as is the case for any point in a violin-, harp-, or pianoforte-string (differing, as these do, from one another in their motions on account of the different modes of excitation used), a similar construction may be made. Investigation regarding complex harmonic functions has led to results of the highest importance, having their most general expression in Fourier's Theorem, to which we will presently devote several pages. We give, on page 45, graphic representations of the composition of two simple harmonic motions in one line, of equal amplitudes and of periods which are as 1 : 2 and as 2 : 3, for differences of epoch corresponding to 0, 1, 2, etc., sixteenths of a circumference. In each case the epoch of the component of greater period is a quarter of its own period. In the first, second, third, etc., of each series respectively, the epoch of the component. of shorter period is less than a quarter-period by 0, 1, 2, etc., sixteenths of the period. The successive horizontal lines are the axes of abscissæ of the successive curves; the vertical line to the left of each series being the common axis of ordinates. In each of the first set the graver motion goes through one complete period, in the second it goes through two periods. Both, from x = 0 to x = 2π; and for n = 0, 1, 2..............15, in succession. These, and similar cases, when the periodic times are not commensurable, will be again treated of under Acoustics. tions in directions. 63. We have next to consider the composition of simple har- S. H. momonic motions in different directions. In the first place, we see different that any number of simple harmonic motions of one period, and of the same phase, superimposed, produce a single simple harmonic motion of the same phase. For, the displacement at any instant being, according to the principle of the composition of motions, the geometrical resultant (see above, § 50) of the displacements due to the component motions separately, these component displacements, in the case supposed, all vary in simple proportion to one another, and are in constant directions. Hence the resultant displacement will vary in simple proportion to each of them, and will be in a constant direction. But if, while their periods are the same, the phases of the several component motions do not agree, the resultant motion will generally be elliptic, with equal areas described in equal times by the radius-vector from the centre; although in particular cases it may be uniform circular, or, on the other hand, rectilineal and simple harmonic. 64. To prove this, we may first consider the case in which we have two equal simple harmonic motions given, and these in perpendicular lines, and differing in phase by a quarter period. Their resultant is a uniform circular motion. For, let BA, B'A' be their ranges; and from O, their common middle point, as centre, describe a circle through AA'BB'. The given motion of P in BA will be (§ 53) defined by the motion. B P Α' B' O P of a point round the circumference of S. H. mutions in different direction 3. the component in advance of the other towards the positive end of the range of this latter. 65. Now, orthogonal projections of simple harmonic motions are clearly simple harmonic with unchanged phase. Hence, if we project the case of § 64 on any plane, we get motion in an ellipse, of which the projections of the two component ranges are conjugate diameters, and in which the radius-vector from the centre describes equal areas (being the projections of the areas described by the radius of the circle) in equal times. But the plane and position of the circle of which this projection is taken may clearly be found so as to fulfil the condition of having the projections of the ranges coincident with any two given mutually bisecting lines. Hence any two given simple harmonic motions, equal or unequal in range, and oblique or at right angles to one another in direction, provided only they differ by a quarter period in phase, produce elliptic motion, having their ranges for conjugate axes, and describing, by the radius-vector from the centre, equal areas in equal times (compare § 34, b). 66. Returning to the composition of any number of simple harmonic motions of one period, in lines in all directions and of all phases: each component simple harmonic motion may be determinately resolved into two in the same line, differing in phase by a quarter period, and one of them having any given epoch. We may therefore reduce the given motions to two sets, differing in phase by a quarter period, those of one set agreeing in phase with any one of the given, or with any other simple harmonic motion we please to choose (ie., having their epoch anything we please). All of each set may (§ 58) be compounded into one simple harmonic motion of the same phase, of determinate amplitude, in a determinate line; and thus the whole system is reduced to two simple fully determined harmonic motions differing from one another in phase by a quarter period. Now the resultant of two simple harmonic motions, one a quarter of a period in advance of the other, in different lines, has been proved (§ 65) to be motion in an ellipse of which the ranges of the component motions are conjugate axes, and in which equal |