planets; for their quantities of matter are as the forces of gravity at equal distances from their centres; that is, in the sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and the earth, as 1, 1⁄1067, 1⁄3021 and 1⁄169282 respectively. If the parallax of the sun be taken greater or less than 10″ 30‴, the quantity of matter in the earth must be augmented or diminished in the triplicate of that proportion.
Cor. 3. Hence also we find the densities of the planets; for (by Prop. LXXII, Book I) the weights of equal and similar bodies towards similar spheres are, at the surfaces of those spheres, as the diameters of the spheres and therefore the densities of dissimilar spheres are as those weights applied to the diameters of the spheres. But the true diameters of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and the earth, were one to another as 10000, 997, 791, and 109; and the weights towards the same as 10000, 943, 529, and 435 respectively; and therefore their densities are as 100, 94½, 67, and 400. The density of the earth, which comes out by this computation, does not depend upon the parallax of the sun, but is determined by the parallax of the moon, and therefore is here truly defined. The sun, therefore, is a little denser than Jupiter, and Jupiter than Saturn, and the earth four times denser than the sun; for the sun, by its great heat, is kept in a sort of a rarefied state. The moon is denser than the earth, as shall appear afterward.
Cor. 4. The smaller the planets are, they are, cæteris paribus, of so much the greater density; for so the powers of gravity on their several surfaces come nearer to equality. They are likewise, cæteris paribus, of the greater density, as they are nearer to the sun. So Jupiter is more dense than Saturn, and the earth than Jupiter; for the planets were to be placed at different distances from the sun, that, according to their degrees of density, they might enjoy a greater or less proportion to the sun's heat. Our water, if it were removed as far as the orb of Saturn, would be converted into ice, and in the orb of Mercury would quickly fly away in vapour; for the light of the sun, to which its heat is proportional, is seven times denser in the orb of Mercury than with us: and by the thermometer I have found that a sevenfold heat of our summer sun will make water boil. Nor are we to doubt that the matter of Mercury is adapted to its heat, and is therefore more dense than the matter of our earth; since, in a denser matter, the operations of Nature require a stronger heat.
PROPOSITION IX. THEOREM IX.
- That the force of gravity, considered downward from the surface of the planets, decreases nearly in the proportion of the distances from their centres.
If the matter of the planet were of an uniform density, this Proposition would be accurately true (by Prop. LXXIII. Book I). The error,
