XXI.—On the Path of a Rotating Spherical Projectile

Abstract

The curious effects of rotation upon the path of a spherical projectile have been investigated experimentally by Robins and many others, of whom Magnus is one of the more recent. They have also been the subject of elaborate mathematical investigation, especially by Poisson, who has published a large treatise on the question. For all that, we know as yet very little more about them than Newton did in 1666, when he made his famous experiments on what we now call dispersion.