ON THE MOTION OF PENDULUMS. 9
a comparison of the results with, the experiments of Baily and ,/ others. Expressions are deduced for the effect of a fluid both on the time and on the arc of vibration of a pendulum consisting either of a sphere, or of a cylindrical rod, or of a combination of a sphere and a rod. These expressions contain only one disposable constant, which has a very simple physical meaning, and which I "» (1
propose to call the index of friction of the fluid. This constant we I
may conceive determined by one observation, giving the effect of \
the fluid either on the time or on the arc of vibration of any one V,
pendulum of one of the above forms, and then the theory ought to predict the effect both on the time and on the arc of vibration of all such pendulums. The agreement of theory with the experiments of Baily on the time of vibration is remarkably close. Even the rate of decrease of the arc of vibration, which it formed no part of Baily's object to observe, except so far as was necessary for making the small correction for reduction to indefinitely small vibrations, agrees with the result calculated from theory as nearly as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances.
It follows, from theory that with a given sphere or cylindrical rod the factor n increases with the time of vibration. This accounts in a good measure for the circumstance that Bessel obtained so large a value of k for air, as is shewn at length in the present • paper; though it unquestionably arose in a great degree from the increase of resistance due to the close proximity of a rigid plane to the swinging ball.
I have deduced the value of the index of friction of water from some experiments of Coulomb's on the decrement of the arc of oscillation of disks, oscillating in water in their own plane by the torsion of a wire. When the numerical value thus obtained is substituted in the expression for the time of vibration of a sphere, the result agrees almost exactly with Bessel's experiments with a sphere swung in water.
The present paper contains one or two applications of the theory of internal friction to problems which are of some interest, but which do not relate to pendulums. The resistance to a sphere „,
moving uniformly in a fluid may be obtained as a limiting case of the resistance to a ball pendulum, provided the circumstances be such that the square of the velocity maybe neglected. The resistance thus determined proves to be proportional, for a given fluid and a given velocity, not to the surface, but to the radius of the