experiments of pendulums, as well as by the experiments of falling bodies. And from all this it may be concluded, that the resistances of bodies, moving in any fluids whatsoever, though of the most extreme fluidity, are, cæteris paribus, as the densities of the fluids.
These things being thus established, we may now determine what part of its motion any globe projected in any fluid whatsoever would nearly lose in a given time. Let D be the diameter of the globe, and V its velocity at the beginning of its motion, and T the time in which a globe with the velocity V can describe in vacuo a space that is, to the space D as the density of the globe to the density of the fluid; and the globe projected in that fluid will, in any other time t lose the part , the part remaining; and will describe a space, which will be to that described in the same time in vacuo with the uniform velocity V, as the logarithm of the number multiplied by the number 2,302585093 is to the number , by Cor. 7, Prop. XXXV. In slow motions the resistance may be a little less, because the figure of a globe is more adapted to motion than the figure of a cylinder described with the same diameter. In swift motions the resistance may be a little greater, because the elasticity and compression of the fluid do not increase in the duplicate ratio of the velocity. But these little niceties I take no notice of.
And though air, water, quicksilver, and the like fluids, by the division of their parts in infinitum, should be subtilized, and become mediums infinitely fluid, nevertheless, the resistance they would make to projected globes would be the same. For the resistance considered in the preceding Propositions arises from the inactivity of the matter; and the inactivity of matter is essential to bodies, and always proportional to the quantity of matter. By the division of the parts of the fluid the resistance arising from the tenacity and friction of the parts may be indeed diminished; but the quantity of matter will not be at all diminished by this division; and if the quantity of matter be the same, its force of inactivity will be the same; and therefore the resistance here spoken of will be the same, as being always proportional to that force. To diminish this resistance, the quantity of matter in the spaces through which the bodies move must be diminished; and therefore the celestial spaces, through which the globes of the planets and comets are perpetually passing towards all parts, with the utmost freedom, and without the least sensible diminution of their motion, must be utterly void of any corporeal fluid, excepting, perhaps, some extremely rare vapours and the rays of light.
