| Description | Minchin had expressed an interest in seeing a short proof of Minding's theorem just before Larmor's paper arrived, and he was amused in consequence. [Peter Guthrie] Tait's proof is not as simple as it appears and he was prejudiced against it. He has adopted it wth some modification. The third edition of his 'Statics' is to appear in two volumes and he describes the contents. Having given Tait's proof within it, he gives Larmor's, which may be useful in other directions. He describes a theorem he 'hit upon' yesterday, on a rigid body acted upon by forces of constant directions in space and points of application in the body, two axes at every point may be found, so that the body is free to rotate but not to translate along it. He expands upon the idea, which looks nice, and may be deduced by Larmor's method. |