The constitution of matter : memoir on the probable constitution of matter, and laws of motion, as deducible from, and explanatory of, the physical phenomena of nature / by J.L. Riddell.

  • Riddell, John Leonard, 1807-1865.
Date:
[1846?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution of matter : memoir on the probable constitution of matter, and laws of motion, as deducible from, and explanatory of, the physical phenomena of nature / by J.L. Riddell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    simultaneously in New York. Thus, though the rod might not progress through space, in consequence of the blow, more than perhaps the ten- millionth part of a line, yet the force of the blow would be conveyed, and might produce an equivalent effect at the other extremity. If, instead of supposing the Mo °° particles in contact, intervening spaces be allowed, then the progress of the impulse would require time. A medium of [Mo °° might be supposed thus to transmit impulses of motion or mo- mentum, without any assignable translation of the [Mo °° medium. 28. Let us next suppose that the [Mo °° particles are in part aggre- gated, so as to make a larger grade of atoms, [Mo00—l of far greater density than the same volume of the [Mo °° medium. If Mo °° -1 receive from any one direction impulses from the medium [Mo °°, a length of time proportionate to its greater density must elapse before it can attain the velocity of the impinging [Mo °° particles. Long before it would acquire this velocity, Mo 00-1- may mediately impinge upon M'o00-1, when its motion is gradually arrested by being gradually communicated to M'o00-1; momentum being successively communicated to every Mo °° particle component of M'o 00-t. Thus, to be in equilibrio, the velocity of impulses suffer a slower transmission, the more gross or more highly aggregated the particles composing the medium of transmission. 29. Motion, or momentum, its measure, consists in the progression of matter through space. It may be transferred impulsively from one portion of matter to another, always by ihe supposed actual contact of the [Mo °° atoms. Let «== a given mass of matter, «= its velocity, and f= its momentum. By the principles of dynamics v tc=f. It is theorically possible, w remaining constant, that v and^* may vary from 0 to od. Through any assumed or given medium [Mon, it is also theo- rically possible that any amount of momentum from 0 to od may be transmitted impulsively. For if w= the material mass of the given vf medium, and vw=f, when v becomes v', f becomes— So when v be- comes 0 or oo, f becomes 0 or od. 30. The circumstances or conditions determining or making definite the velocity of impulses transmitted through any given medium, are : First, the grossness or rarity of the medium as to which term of the geometrical material series it belongs ; in other words, the actual^amount of matter embraced in the atoms of the medium occupying a given space : Second, the amount of momentum which the medium has to transmit in a given time. For if f be supposed constant, the impulses must travel m times faster in the medium [mo11 , than in the next grosser medium [M ° n_1* Because if the tenuity of the medium be in any degree pro- portionate to the masses of the respective atoms, and if tc= the mass of [M°n m a give» space, &H;=the mass of [Mon-1 in an equal space ; and since vic=f, if w become mw, the equation becomes v' Ww=f. Now since vw=f, and v'mw=f, vw==v' mw, and v=v €#. Whereas [if in any medium as [m° n >f De supposed to increase or diminish until i t become af, the equation becomes v'w=af, andv'=—; whereas v= — / » ^ / w w Hence / : v : : af : v',=av. 31. In our atmosphere we see this exemplified in the impulsive iransmission of sound ; it being a well known fact, that the warmer the