[S]o also they were not unacquainted with the Law and Proportion which the action of Gravity observ'd according to the different Masses and Distances… - David Gregory

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[S]o also they were not unacquainted with the Law and Proportion which the action of Gravity observ'd according to the different Masses and Distances. For that Gravity is proportional to the Quantity of Matter in the heavy Body, Lucretius does sufficiently declare, as also that what we call light Bodies, don't ascend of their own accord, but by the action of a force underneath them, impelling them upwards, just as a piece of Wood is in Water; and further, that all Bodies, as well the heavy as the light, do descend in vacuo, with an equal celerity.

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About David Gregory

David Gregory (originally spelt Gregorie) FRS (3 June 1659 – 10 October 1708) was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He was professor of mathematics at the , and later at the University of Oxford, and a proponent of Isaac Newton's .

Also Known As

Alternative Names: David Gregorie
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Additional quotes by David Gregory

[F]or the further improvement of natural philosophy a more advanced geometry must be found. ...[T]he reason why physical science has here been brought to a level that is the envy of foreigners is the knowledge... of some more universal geometry. Of what part of this the learned owe to this renowned university and in it to the prince of geometers I shall not speak lest I appear to be fawning, which in a mathematician would be unseemly.

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[W]e have come into the age where questions that were once cosmographical are being transformed into geometrical problems. For it has now been shown not only that the areas which bodies driven in a circuit describe by the radii drawn to the centre of forces are in immobile planes and proportional to the times, but also conversely that every body moved in this way is impelled by a centripetal force that tends towards the aforesaid point. By this proposition alone the Ptolemaic system is destroyed, for the primary planets by radii drawn to the Earth describe areas in no way proportional to the times, while with the radii drawn to the sun it is established that they run over areas sufficiently proportional to the times.

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