116 THE MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES [BOOK I force, now tending to a centre infinitely remote, will become equable. Which is Galileo s theorem. And if the parabolic section of the cone (by changing the inclination of the cutting plane to the cone) degenerates into an hyperbola, the body will move in the perimeter of this hyperbola, hav ing its centripetal force changed into a centrifugal force. And in like manner as in the circle, or in the ellipsis, if the forces are directed to the centre of the figure placed in the abscissa, those forces by increasing or di minishing the ordinates in any given ratio, or even by changing the angle of the inclination of the ordinates to the abscissa, are always augmented or diminished in the ratio of the distances from the centre ; provided the periodic times remain equal ; so also in all figures whatsoever, if the ordinates are augmented or diminished in any given ratio, or their inclination is any way changed, the periodic time remaining the same, the forces di rected to any centre placed in the abscissa are in the several ordinatee augmented or diminished in the ratio of the distances from the centre SECTION III. Of the motion of bodies in eccentric conic sections. PROPOSITION XL PROBLEM VI. If a body revolves in an ellipsis ; it is required to find the law of the centripetal force tending to the focus of the ellipsis. Let S be the focus of the ellipsis. Draw SP cutting the diame ter DK of the ellipsis in E, and the ordinate Qv in x ; and com plete the parallelogram d.rPR, It is evident that EP is equal to the greater semi-axis AC : for drawing HI froln the other focus H of the ellipsis parallel to EC, because CS, CH are equal, ES, El will be also equal ; so that EP is the half sum of PS, PI, that is (because of the parallels HI, PR, and the equal angles IPR, HPZ), of PS, PH, which taken together are equal to the whole axis 2AC. Draw QT perpendicu lar to SP, and putting L for the princi al latus rectum of the ellipsis (or for