Continuity

(Law of.) (kon-le-nu'e-te.) (Phy.) The principle that nothing pa es from one state to another without pa ing through all intermediate states. From this law, for instance, if it be known that at two instants of time a body had a temperature of 20°, and at another a temperature of 40°, then there must have bee nan instant between these at which the temperature was 30°. If a body, at two different times, had velocities of 12ft. and 20ft. per second, respectively, we ' may conclude, from the law of continuity, that between these times it had all velocities between 12 ft. and 20 ft. The principle is of considerable use in investigations on motion and physical change; it was distinctly laid down byGalileo, who ascribed it to Plato; but Leibnitz was the first to apply it extensively to test physical theories. He established its truth by the method of reductio ad absurdum. If a change were to happen| without the lapse of time, the thing changed must be in two different conditions at the same instant, which is obviously impo ible. [s. 223]