Part 16
_Diagram of Velocity._--If the relative velocities of the points of the system are constant, then the diagram of displacement corresponding to an interval of a unit of time between the initial and the final configuration is called a diagram of relative velocity. If the relative velocities are not constant, we suppose another system in which the velocities are equal to the velocities of the given system at the given instant and continue constant for a unit of time. The diagram of displacements for this imaginary system is the required diagram of relative velocities of the actual system at the given instant. It is easy to see that the diagram gives the velocity of any one point relative to any other, but cannot give the absolute velocity of any of them.
_Diagram of Acceleration._--By the same process by which we formed the diagram of displacements from the two diagrams of initial and final configuration, we may form a diagram of changes of relative velocity from the two diagrams of initial and final velocities. This diagram may be called that of total accelerations in a finite interval of time. And by the same process by which we deduced the diagram of velocities from that of displacements we may deduce the diagram of rates of acceleration from that of total acceleration.
We have mentioned this system of diagrams in elementary kinematics because they are found to be of use especially when we have to deal with material systems containing a great number of parts, as in the kinetic theory of gases. The diagram of configuration then appears as a region of space swarming with points representing molecules, and the only way in which we can investigate it is by considering the number of such points in unit of volume in different parts of that region, and calling this the _density_ of the gas.
In like manner the diagram of velocities appears as a region containing points equal in number but distributed in a different manner, and the number of points in any given portion of the region expresses the number of molecules whose velocities lie within given limits. We may speak of this as the velocity-density.
_Diagrams of Stress._--Graphical methods are peculiarly applicable to statical questions, because the state of the system is constant, so that we do not need to construct a series of diagrams corresponding to the successive states of the system. The most useful of these applications, collectively termed Graphic Statics, relates to the equilibrium of plane framed structures familiarly represented in bridges and roof-trusses. Two diagrams are used, one called the diagram of the frame and the other called the diagram of stress. The structure itself consists of a number of separable pieces or links jointed together at their extremities. In practice these joints have friction, or may be made purposely stiff, so that the force acting at the extremity of a piece may not pass exactly through the axis of the joint; but as it is unsafe to make the stability of the structure depend in any degree upon the stiffness of joints, we assume in our calculations that all the joints are perfectly smooth, and therefore that the force acting on the end of any link passes through the axis of the joint.
The axes of the joints of the structure are represented by points in the diagram of the frame. The link which connects two joints in the actual structure may be of any shape, but in the diagram of the frame it is represented by a straight line joining the points representing the two joints. If no force acts on the link except the two forces
## acting through the centres of the joints, these two forces must be
equal and opposite, and their direction must coincide with the straight line joining the centres of the joints. If the force acting on either extremity of the link is directed towards the other extremity, the stress on the link is called pressure and the link is called a "strut." If it is directed away from the other extremity, the stress on the link is called tension and the link is called a "tie." In this case, therefore, the only stress acting in a link is a pressure or a tension in the direction of the straight line which represents it in the diagram of the frame, and all that we have to do is to find the magnitude of this stress. In the actual structure gravity acts on every part of the link, but in the diagram we substitute for the actual weight of the different parts of the link two weights which have the same resultant acting at the extremities of the link.
We may now treat the diagram of the frame as composed of links without weight, but loaded at each joint with a weight made up of portions of the weights of all the links which meet in that joint. If any link has more than two joints we may substitute for it in the diagram an imaginary stiff frame, consisting of links, each of which has only two joints. The diagram of the frame is now reduced to a system of points, certain pairs of which are joined by straight lines, and each point is in general acted on by a weight or other force acting between it and some point external to the system. To complete the diagram we may represent these external forces as links, that is to say, straight lines joining the points of the frame to points external to the frame. Thus each weight may be represented by a link joining the point of application of the weight with the centre of the earth.
But we can always construct an imaginary frame having its joints in the lines of action of these external forces, and this frame, together with the real frame and the links representing external forces, which join points in the one frame to points in the other frame, make up together a complete self-strained system in equilibrium, consisting of points connected by links acting by pressure or tension. We may in this way reduce any real structure to the case of a system of points with attractive or repulsive forces acting between certain pairs of these points, and keeping them in equilibrium. The direction of each of these forces is sufficiently indicated by that of the line joining the points, so that we have only to determine its magnitude. We might do this by calculation, and then write down on each link the pressure or the tension which acts in it.
We should in this way obtain a mixed diagram in which the stresses are represented graphically as regards direction and position, but symbolically as regards magnitude. But we know that a force may be represented in a purely graphical manner by a straight line in the direction of the force containing as many units of length as there are units of force in the force. The end of this line is marked with an arrow head to show in which direction the force acts. According to this method each force is drawn in its proper position in the diagram of configuration of the frame. Such a diagram might be useful as a record of the result of calculation of the magnitude of the forces, but it would be of no use in enabling us to test the correctness of the calculation.
But we have a graphical method of testing the equilibrium of any set of forces acting at a point. We draw in series a set of lines parallel and proportional to these forces. If these lines form a closed polygon the forces are in equilibrium. (See MECHANICS.) We might in this way form a series of polygons of forces, one for each joint of the frame. But in so doing we give up the principle of drawing the line representing a force from the point of application of the force, for all the sides of the polygon cannot pass through the same point, as the forces do. We also represent every stress twice over, for it appears as a side of both the polygons corresponding to the two joints between which it acts. But if we can arrange the polygons in such a way that the sides of any two polygons which represent the same stress coincide with each other, we may form a diagram in which every stress is represented in direction and magnitude, though not in position, by a single line which is the common boundary of the two polygons which represent the joints at the extremities of the corresponding piece of the frame.
We have thus obtained a pure diagram of stress in which no attempt is made to represent the configuration of the material system, and in which every force is not only represented in direction and magnitude by a straight line, but the equilibrium of the forces at any joint is manifest by inspection, for we have only to examine whether the corresponding polygon is closed or not.
The relations between the diagram of the frame and the diagram of stress are as follows:--To every link in the frame corresponds a straight line in the diagram of stress which represents in magnitude and direction the stress acting in that link; and to every joint of the frame corresponds a closed polygon in the diagram, and the forces
## acting at that joint are represented by the sides of the polygon taken
in a certain cyclical order, the cyclical order of the sides of the two adjacent polygons being such that their common side is traced in opposite directions in going round the two polygons.
The direction in which any side of a polygon is traced is the direction of the force acting on that joint of the frame which corresponds to the polygon, and due to that link of the frame which corresponds to the side. This determines whether the stress of the link is a pressure or a tension. If we know whether the stress of any one link is a pressure or a tension, this determines the cyclical order of the sides of the two polygons corresponding to the ends of the links, and therefore the cyclical order of all the polygons, and the nature of the stress in every link of the frame.
_Reciprocal Diagrams._--When to every point of concourse of the lines in the diagram of stress corresponds a closed polygon in the skeleton of the frame, the two diagrams are said to be reciprocal.
The first extensions of the method of diagrams of forces to other cases than that of the funicular polygon were given by Rankine in his _Applied Mechanics_ (1857). The method was independently applied to a large number of cases by W. P. Taylor, a practical draughtsman in the office of J. B. Cochrane, and by Professor Clerk Maxwell in his lectures in King's College, London. In the _Phil. Mag._ for 1864 the latter pointed out the reciprocal properties of the two diagrams, and in a paper on "Reciprocal Figures, Frames and Diagrams of Forces," _Trans. R.S. Edin._ vol. xxvi., 1870, he showed the relation of the method to Airy's function of stress and to other mathematical methods. Professor Fleeming Jenkin has given a number of applications of the method to practice (_Trans. R.S. Edin._ vol. xxv.).
L. Cremona (_Le Figure reciproche nella statica grafica_, 1872) deduced the construction of reciprocal figures from the theory of the two components of a wrench as developed by Möbius. Karl Culmann, in his _Graphische Statik_ (1st ed. 1864-1866, 2nd ed. 1875), made great use of diagrams of forces, some of which, however, are not reciprocal. Maurice Levy in his _Statique graphique_ (1874) has treated the whole subject in an elementary but copious manner, and R. H. Bow, in his _The Economics of Construction in Relation to Framed Structures_ (1873), materially simplified the process of drawing a diagram of stress reciprocal to a given frame acted on by a system of equilibrating external forces.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Diagram of Configuration.]
Instead of lettering the joints of the frame, as is usually done, or the links of the frame, as was the custom of Clerk Maxwell, Bow places a letter in each of the polygonal areas enclosed by the links of the frame, and also in each of the divisions of surrounding space as separated by the lines of action of the external forces. When one link of the frame crosses another, the point of apparent intersection of the links is treated as if it were a real joint, and the stresses of each of the intersecting links are represented twice in the diagram of stress, as the opposite sides of the parallelogram which corresponds to the point of intersection.
This method is followed in the lettering of the diagram of configuration (fig. 1), and the diagram of stress (fig. 2) of the linkwork which Professor Sylvester has called a quadruplane.
In fig. 1 the real joints are distinguished from the places where one link appears to cross another by the little circles O, P, Q, R, S, T, V. The four links RSTV form a "contraparallelogram" in which RS = TV and RV = ST. The triangles ROS, RPV, TQS are similar to each other. A fourth triangle (TNV), not drawn in the figure, would complete the quadruplane. The four points O, P, N, Q form a parallelogram whose angle POQ is constant and equal to [pi] - SOR. The product of the distances OP and OQ is constant. The linkwork may be fixed at O. If any figure is traced by P, Q will trace the inverse figure, but turned round O through the constant angle POQ. In the diagram forces Pp, Qq are balanced by the force Co at the fixed point. The forces Pp and Qq are necessarily inversely as OP and OQ, and make equal angles with those lines.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Diagram of Stress.]
Every closed area formed by the links or the external forces in the diagram of configuration is marked by a letter which corresponds to a point of concourse of lines in the diagram of stress. The stress in the link which is the common boundary of two areas is represented in the diagram of stress by the line joining the points corresponding to those areas. When a link is divided into two or more parts by lines crossing it, the stress in each part is represented by a different line for each part, but as the stress is the same throughout the link these lines are all equal and parallel. Thus in the figure the stress in RV is represented by the four equal and parallel lines HI, FG, DE and AB. If two areas have no part of their boundary in common the letters corresponding to them in the diagram of stress are not joined by a straight line. If, however, a straight line were drawn between them, it would represent in direction and magnitude the resultant of all the stresses in the links which are cut by any line, straight or curved, joining the two areas. For instance the areas F and C in fig. 1 have no common boundary, and the points F and C in fig. 2 are not joined by a straight line. But every path from the area F to the area C in fig. 1 passes through a series of other areas, and each passage from one area into a contiguous area corresponds to a line drawn in the diagram of stress. Hence the whole path from F to C in fig. 1 corresponds to a path formed of lines in fig. 2 and extending from F to C, and the resultant of all the stresses in the links cut by the path is represented by FC in fig. 2.
Many examples of stress diagrams are given in the article on BRIDGES (q.v.).
_Automatic Description of Diagrams._
There are many other kinds of diagrams in which the two co-ordinates of a point in a plane are employed to indicate the simultaneous values of two related quantities. If a sheet of paper is made to move, say horizontally, with a constant known velocity, while a tracing point is made to move in a vertical straight line, the height varying as the value of any given physical quantity, the point will trace out a curve on the paper from which the value of that quantity at any given time may be determined. This principle is applied to the automatic registration of phenomena of all kinds, from those of meteorology and terrestrial magnetism to the velocity of cannon-shot, the vibrations of sounding bodies, the motions of animals, voluntary and involuntary, and the currents in electric telegraphs.
In Watt's indicator for steam engines the paper does not move with a constant velocity, but its displacement is proportional to that of the piston of the engine, while that of the tracing point is proportional to the pressure of the steam. Hence the co-ordinates of a point of the curve traced on the diagram represent the volume and the pressure of the steam in the cylinder. The indicator-diagram not only supplies a record of the pressure of the steam at each stage of the stroke of the engine, but indicates the work done by the steam in each stroke by the area enclosed by the curve traced on the diagram. (J. C. M.)
DIAL and DIALLING. Dialling, sometimes called gnomonics, is a branch of applied mathematics which treats of the construction of sun-dials, that is, of those instruments, either fixed or portable, which determine the divisions of the day (Lat. _dies_) by the motion of the shadow of some object on which the sun's rays fall. It must have been one of the earliest applications of a knowledge of the apparent motion of the sun; though for a long time men would probably be satisfied with the division into morning and afternoon as marked by sun-rise, sun-set and the greatest elevation.
_History._--The earliest mention of a sun-dial is found in Isaiah xxxviii. 8: "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the _sun-dial_ of Ahaz ten degrees backward." The date of this would be about 700 years before the Christian era, but we know nothing of the character or construction of the instrument. The earliest of all sun-dials of which we have any certain knowledge was the hemicycle, or hemisphere, of the Chaldaean astronomer Berossus, who probably lived about 300 B.C. It consisted of a hollow hemisphere placed with its rim perfectly horizontal, and having a bead, or globule, fixed in any way at the centre. So long as the sun remained above the horizon the shadow of the bead would fall on the inside of the hemisphere, and the path of the shadow during the day would be approximately a circular arc. This arc, divided into twelve equal parts, determined twelve equal intervals of time for that day. Now, supposing this were done at the time of the solstices and equinoxes, and on as many intermediate days as might be considered sufficient, and then curve lines drawn through the corresponding points of division of the different arcs, the shadow of the bead falling on one of these curve lines would mark a division of time for that day, and thus we should have a sun-dial which would divide each period of daylight into twelve equal parts. These equal parts were called _temporary hours_; and, since the duration of daylight varies from day to day, the temporary hours of one day would differ from those of another; but this inequality would probably be disregarded at that time, and especially in countries where the variation between the longest summer day and the shortest winter day is much less than in our climates.
The dial of Berossus remained in use for centuries. The Arabians, as appears from the work of Albategnius, still followed the same construction about the year A.D. 900. Four of these dials have in modern times been found in Italy. One, discovered at Tivoli in 1746, is supposed to have belonged to Cicero, who, in one of his letters, says that he had sent a dial of this kind to his villa near Tusculum. The second and third were found in 1751--one at Castel-Nuovo and the other at Rignano; and a fourth was found in 1762 at Pompeii. G. H. Martini in his _Abhandlungen von den Sonnenuhren der Alten_ (Leipzig, 1777), says that this dial was made for the latitude of Memphis; it may therefore be the work of Egyptians, perhaps constructed in the school of Alexandria.
Herodotus recorded that the Greeks derived from the Babylonians the use of the gnomon, but the great progress made by the Greeks in geometry enabled them in later times to construct dials of great complexity, some of which remain to us, and are proof not only of extensive knowledge but also of great ingenuity.
Ptolemy's _Almagest_ treats of the construction of dials by means of his _analemma_, an instrument which solved a variety of astronomical problems. The constructions given by him were sufficient for regular dials, that is, horizontal dials, or vertical dials facing east, west, north or south, and these are the only ones he treats of. It is certain, however, that the ancients were able to construct declining dials, as is shown by that most interesting monument of ancient gnomics--the Tower of the Winds at Athens. This is a regular octagon, on the faces of which the eight principal winds are represented, and over them eight different dials--four facing the cardinal points and the other four facing the intermediate directions. The date of the dials is long subsequent to that of the tower; for Vitruvius, who describes the tower in the sixth chapter of his first book, says nothing about the dials, and as he has described all the dials known in his time, we must believe that the dials of the tower did not then exist. The hours are still the temporary hours or, as the Greeks called them, _hectemoria_.
The first sun-dial erected at Rome was in the year 290 B.C., and this Papirius Cursor had taken from the Samnites. A dial which Valerius Messalla had brought from Catania, the latitude of which is five degrees less than that of Rome, was placed in the forum in the year 261 B.C. The first dial actually constructed at Rome was in the year 164 B.C., by order of Q. Marcius Philippus, but as no other Roman has written on gnomonics, this was perhaps the work of a foreign artist. If, too, we remember that the dial found at Pompeii was made for the latitude of Memphis, and consequently less adapted to its position than that of Catania to Rome, we may infer that mathematical knowledge was not cultivated in Italy.
The Arabians were much more successful. They attached great importance to gnomonics, the principles of which they had learned from the Greeks, but they greatly simplified and diversified the Greek constructions. One of their writers, Abu'l Hassan, who lived about the beginning of the 13th century, taught them how to trace dials on cylindrical, conical and other surfaces. He even introduced _equal_ or _equinoctial hours_, but the idea was not supported, and the temporary hours alone continued in use.