ON

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY,

IN WHICH

THE ELEMENTS OF THAT SCIENCE

ARE

FAMILIARLY EXPLAINED,

AND ADAPTED TO THE

COMPREHENSION OF YOUNG PUPILS.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES.

BY THE AUTHOR OF CONVERSATIONS ON CHEMISTRY, AND
CONVERSATIONS ON POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Fourth American Edition.

HARTFORD:

PRINTED BY GEORGE GOODWIN & SONS.

PREFACE.

IT is with increased diffidence that the author offers this little work to the public. The encouraging reception which the Conversations on Chemistry, and Political Economy have met with, has induced her to venture on publishing a short course on Natural Philosophy; but not without the greatest apprehensions for its success. Her ignorance of mathematics, and the imperfect knowledge of natural philosophy which that disadvantage necessarily implies, renders her fully sensible of her incompetency to treat the subject in any other way than in the form of a familiar explanation of the first elements, for the use of very young pupils. It is the hope of having done this in a manner that may engage their attention, which encourages her to offer them these additional lessons.

They are intended, in a course of elementary science, to precede the Conversations on Chemistry; and were actually written previous to either of her former publications.

CONTENTS.

CONVERSATION I.

On General Properties of Bodies.

INTRODUCTION.-
.-General Properties of Bodies.—Impenetrability.

-Extension.--Figure.--Divisibility.- Inertia.-Attraction.—

Attraction of Cohesion.-Density.-Rarity.-Heat.-Attraction

of Gravitation.

CONVERSATION II.

On the Attraction of Gravity.

Page 13

Attraction of Gravitation, continued.-Of Weight.-Of the fall

of Bodies-Of the resistance of the Air.-Of the Ascent of

Light Bodies.

Page 33

CONVERSATION III.

On the Laws of Motion.

Of Motion.-Of the Inertia of Bodies.-Of Force to Produce

Motion.-Direction of Motion-Velocity, absolute and relative.

-Uniform Motion.-Retarded Motion.~Accelerated Motion.