1-20-30 PREFACE. THIS work, commenced by Mr STEELE and myself towards the end of 1852, first appeared in 1856. At Mr STEELE'S early death his allotted share of the work was uncompleted, and I had to undertake the final arrangement of the whole. In the subsequent editions it has derived much benefit from revision first by Mr STIRLING of Trinity in 1865, then by Mr W. D. NIVEN of Trinity in 1871, and recently by Prof. GREENHILL of Emmanuel in 1878. It now appears after a general revision by myself, with the assistance of Dr C. G. KNOTT and of my colleague Prof. CHRYSTAL. Under such circumstances it could not fail to be a patchwork of a somewhat complicated kind; but the comparatively rapid exhaustion of the latest edition shows that, with all its many faults, it meets not very inadequately a real want. of tte, I have no doubt that, with a few months' leisure, I could immensely improve it; if merely by giving it more unity of plan. But the time I am able to devote to such things has to be snatched at irregular intervals from other engrossing work; and I am led, therefore, very naturally rather to the making of hastily improvised insertions than to carrying out any well-considered scheme of compression or co-ordination. 'T. D. b 1 The book's most important fault is its bulk; yet I do not think it can be honestly accused of prolixity. And I have always considered undue prolixity to be, next of course to inaccuracy, the greatest fault that a scientific work could exhibit. The number of Examples is perhaps unduly large, but experience has shown me that there are many readers who will not consider this a defect. My attention has been called to the fact that several sections of this book, in which some novelties appear, have been translated almost letter for letter and transferred, without the slightest allusion to their source, to the pages of a German work. Several other books have obviously been similarly treated by the same compiler. It is well that this should be generally known, as the British authors might otherwise come to be supposed to have adopted these passages simpliciter from the German. P. GUTHRIE TAIT. COLLEGE, EDINBURGH, Motion of a point deduced from the given acceleration, § 25. Relative Velocity and Acceleration, §§ 26-36. Angular Velocity and Acceleration, §§ 37-40. Velocity and Acceleration relative to Moving Axes, §§ 41-43. Definitions of Mass, Density, Particle, Force, Momentum, Vis Viva, Kinetic Energy, Measure of Force, Compo- nent of Force, &c. &c. §§ 44-57. Definition, and Properties, of Center of Inertia, § 58. Definition of Potential Energy, § 62. Newton's Laws of Motion, with their consequences-as PAGES 1-34 34-4I 42-58 Scholium to the Third Law, with its interpretation. D'Alembert's principle, Horse-power, Conservation of Energy in Ordinary Mechanics, §§ 73-75. Projectile in vacuo, §§ 106-119. Projectile in vacuo when the changes in the direction and ... 113-144 Properties of Apses, §§ 145-148. Orbits under the Law of Gravitation, §§ 149-158. Elliptic motion; definitions and immediate deductions, 167-222 |