Elements of natural philosophy (Volume 2-3) . rtain neutral positions where the direction of the actionis reversed, and is easily penetrable in this direction,whereas along the line A C it exerts little or no actionwithin certain limits, and is capable of an infinite repul-sion within its last limit of cohesion. Thus we see thateven in this simplest constitution of a molecule, the actionon an atom is susceptible of great variety by mere diffe-rence of position and distance between its componentatoms ; and it would be easy to show that while the lawof the atomic action in all bodies is the same
Elements of natural philosophy (Volume 2-3) . rtain neutral positions where the direction of the actionis reversed, and is easily penetrable in this direction,whereas along the line A C it exerts little or no actionwithin certain limits, and is capable of an infinite repul-sion within its last limit of cohesion. Thus we see thateven in this simplest constitution of a molecule, the actionon an atom is susceptible of great variety by mere diffe-rence of position and distance between its componentatoms ; and it would be easy to show that while the lawof the atomic action in all bodies is the same, the reci- _ 9 . 1 Law of atomic procal action of the molecules com-pounded of these atoms may be un-sj3eakably various according to therelative position and distance of thecomponent atoms. § 8. Confining, for the present,the motion of the third atom to theplane of the lines A C and B B\ action the same in all bodies. Fig. 8. Reciprocal action 7i of molecules A infinitely various. B 7f~A%yv \ \ - 16 NATURAL rillLOSOPHY. Action of a Fig. 7, we see that when it is at s, Fig< e. molecule on an it is repelled by the molecule A G \when at z it is attracted, andthe action is reduced to nothingat the point D. When the atom isdrawn aside from its neutral positionD\ say to z, Fig. 8, it will be re-pelled by C and attracted by A,because the distance from the formerwill be diminished, while that from A will be z h to represent the intensity of the repulsion andz o that of the attraction; complete the parallelogramo z h q, and we shall find the molecule urged to its neu-tral position D by a force whose intensity and directionare represented by the diagonal z q; so that, so far as theaction in the plane AG D is concerned, D is a posi-tion of stable equilibrium, and the three atoms A, G andD will constitute for moderate displacements a permanentmolecule, presenting an elementary surface having lengthand breadth. The same would be true were the thirdatom placed at D
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