The belief entertained by some writers that Newton’s edition of Bernhard Varen’s Geographia generalis was simply a verbatim reprint of the original Amsterdam edition of 1650, or of 1664 or 1671, which did not demand Newton’s thoughtful attention, is erroneous. When the first edition went through the press, Varen is said to have been in a bad state of health, which would account for certain gross errors in the text which needed correction, and for the absence of geometric figures which the reader finds it irksome to supply from the statements in the text. The editions of 1650 and 1671 contain only three figures. In Newton’s edition (1672) these are redrawn in improved form and thirty other geometric figures are added. This fact alone indicates that Newton read the text critically. That these drawings are really Newton’s own work is evident from his remark in a letter of May 25, 1672, to Collins : “The book here in the press is Varenius his Geography, for which I have prepared schemes.”

Every student of Mechanics or Applied Mathematics has at some time or other considered the motion of a particle projected into space with a known velocity. He is generally content to ignore air resistance and like contingencies, and to take the subsequent motion as that resulting from the combination of the constant velocity in the given direction of projection with the acceleration due to gravitational attraction upon the particle. Mathematical manipulation of the statements giving the position in space of the particle after an interval of time shows:

(a) That if the particle be projected into space with a given velocity the range on a given plane is a maximum if the direction of projection bisects the angle between the plane and the vertical. Further, the direction of motion of the particle when it strikes the plane at this point of maximum range is at right angles to the direction of projection;

(b) Also, if two directions of projection be obtained such that the range on the given plane for a certain velocity of projection is the same for each, then it can be derived that these directions make equal angles with the bisector of the angle between the plane and the vertical.