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LAWS OF See also:base uniformly in a circle; that is to say, with See also:constant See also:acceleration directed towards the See also:earth's See also:axis. What is done is to See also:divide the resultant force due to See also:gravitation into two components, one of which corresponds to this acceleration, while the other one is what is called the " See also:weight " of the See also:body. Weight is in fact not purely a See also:combination of forces, in the sense in which that See also:term is defined in connexion with the laws of See also:motion, but corresponds to the Galileo acceleration with which the body would begin to move relatively to the earth if the See also:string were cut. Another way of stating the same thing is to say that we introduce, as a correction for the earth's rotation, a force called " centrifugal force," which combined with gravitation gives the weight of the body. It is not, however, a true force in the sense of corresponding to any mutual relation between two portions of See also:matter. The effect of centrifugal force at the See also:equator is to make the weight of a body there about '35% less than the value it would have if due to gravitation alone. This represents about two-thirds of the See also:total variation of Galileo's acceleration between the equator and the poles, the See also:balance being due to the See also:ellipticity of the figure of the earth. In the See also:case of a body moving relatively to the earth, the introduction of centrifugal force only partially corrects the effect of the earth's rotation. See also:Newton called See also:attention to the fact that a falling body moves in a See also:curve, diverging slightly from the plumb-See also:line See also:vertical. The divergence in a fall of roo ft. in the See also:latitude of See also:Greenwich is about TIT in. See also:Foucault's pendulum is another example of motion relative to the earth which exhibits the fact that the earth is not a Newtonian base. For the study of the relative motions of the See also:solar See also:system, a provisional base established for that system by itself, bodies outside it being disregarded, is a very See also:good one. No correction for any defect in it has been found necessary; moreover, no rotation of the base relative to the directions of the stars without proper motion has been detected. This is not inconsistent with the See also:law of gravitation, for such estimates as have been made of planetary perturbations due to stars give results which are insignificant in comparison with quantities at See also:present measurable. For the measurement of motion it must be presumed that we have a method of measuring See also:time. The question of the See also:standard to be employed for the scientific measurement of time accordingly demands attention. A See also:definition of the measurement' dependent on dynamical theory has been a characteristic of the subject as presented by some writers, and may possibly be justifiable; but it is neither necessary nor in accordance with the See also:historical development of See also:science. Galileo measured time for the purpose of his experiments by the flow of See also:water through a small hole under approximately constant conditions, which was of course a very old method. He had, however, some years before, when he was a medical student, noticed the apparent regularity of successive swings of a pendulum, and devised an See also:instrument for measuring, by means of a pendulum, such See also:short periods of time as sufficed for testing the See also:pulse of a patient. The use of the pendulum See also:clock in its present See also:form appears to date from the construction of such a clock by See also:Huygens in 1657. Newton dealt with the question at the beginning of the Principia, distinguishing what he called " See also:absolute time " from such See also:measures of time as would be afforded by any particular examples of motion; but he did not give any clear definition. The selection of a standard may be regarded as a matter of arbitrary choice; that is to say, it would be possible to use any continuous time-measurer, and to adapt all scientific results to it. It is of the utmost importance, however, to make, if possible, such a choice of a standard as shall render it unnecessary to date all results which have any relation to time. Such a choice is practically made. It can be put into the form of a definition by saying that two periods of time are equal in which two See also:physical operations, of whatever See also:character, take See also:place, which are identical in all respects except as regards See also:lapse of time. The validity of this definition depends on the See also:assumption that operations of different kinds all agree in giving the same measure of time, such allowances as experience dictates being made for changing conditions. This assumption has successfully stood all Gravitation. Measure-See also:meat of Time. tests to which it has been subjected. All clocks are constructed on the basis of this method of measurement; that is to say, on the See also:plan of counting the repetitions of some operation, adopted solely on the ground of its being capable of continual repetition with a certain degree of accuracy, and possibly also of automatic See also:compensation for changing conditions. Practically clocks are regulated by reference to the diurnal rotation of the earth relatively to the stars, which affords a measurement on the repetition principle agreeing with other methods, but more accurate than that given by any existing clock. We have, however, good reasons for regarding it as not absolutely perfect, and there are some astronomical data the tendency of which is to confirm this view. The most important See also:extension of the principles of the subject since Newton's time is to be found in the development of the Theory of theory of See also:energy, the See also:chief value of which lies in the Energy. fact that it has supplied a measurable See also:link connecting the motions of systems, the structure of which can be directly observed, with physical and chemical phenomena having to do with motions which cannot be similarly traced in detail. The importance of a study of the changes of the vis viva depending on squares of velocities, or what is now called the " kinetic energy " of a system, was recognized in Newton's time, especially by See also:Leibnitz; and it was perceived (at any See also:rate for See also:special cases) that an increase in this quantity in the course of any motion of the system was otherwise expressible by what we now See also:call the " See also:work " done by the forces. The mathematical treatment of the subject from this point of view by See also:Lagrange (1736–1813) and others has afforded the most important forms of statement of the theory of the motion of a system that are available for See also:practical use. But it is to the physicists of the 19th See also:century, and especially to See also:Joule, whose experimental results were published in 1843–1849, that we practically owe the most notable advance that has been made in the development of the subject—namely, the See also:establishment of the principle of the conservation of energy (see See also:ENERGETICS and ENERGY). The energy of a system is the measure of its capacity for doing work, on the assumption of suitable connexions with other systems. When the motion of a body is checked by a See also:spring, its kinetic energy being destroyed, the spring, if perfectly elastic, is capable of restoring the motion; but if it is checked by See also:friction no such restoration can be immediately effected. It has, however, been shown that, just as the compressed spring has a capacity for doing work by virtue of its configuration, so in the case of the friction there is a physical effect produced—namely, the raising of the temperature of the bodies in contact, which is the See also:mark of a capacity for doing the same amount of work. See also:Electrical and chemical effects afford similar examples. Here we get the link with physics and See also:chemistry alluded to above, which is obtained by the recognition of new forms of energy, interchangeable with what may be called See also:mechanical energy, or that associated with sensible motions and changes of configuration. Such See also:general statements of the theory of motion as that of Lagrange, while releasing us from the rather narrow and strained view of the subject presented by detailed See also:analysis of motion in terms of force, have also suggested a See also:search for other forms which a statement of elementary principles might equally take as the See also:foundation of a logical See also:scheme. In this connexion the interesting scheme formulated by See also:Hertz (1894) deserves See also:notice. It is important as an addition to the See also:logic of the subject rather than on See also:account of any practical advantages which it affords for purposes of calculation. r1882) ; H. Streintz, See also:Die physikalischen Grundlagen der Mechanik 1883) ; E. See also:Mach, Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung historischkritssch dargestellt (1883; 2nd edition (1889 See also:translation) by T. J. McCormack, 1893) ; K. See also:Pearson, The See also:Grammar of Science (1892) ;
A. E. H. Love, Theoretical See also:Mechanics (1897). H. Hertz, Die Prinzipien der Mechanik (1894, translation by See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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