We are therefore obliged in the definition of the equality of the two forces to bring in the principle of the equality of action and reaction; on this account, this principle must no longer be regarded as an experimental law, but as a definition.
For recognizing the equality of two forces here, we are then in possession of two rules: equality of two forces which balance; equality of action and reaction. But, as we have seen above, these two rules are insufficient; we are obliged to have recourse to a third rule and to assume that certain forces, as, for instance, the weight of a body, are constant in magnitude and direction. But this third rule, as I have said, is an experimental law; it is only approximately true; it is a bad definition.
We are therefore reduced to Kirchhoff's definition; force is equal to the mass multiplied by the acceleration. This 'law of Newton' in its turn ceases to be regarded as an experimental law, it is now only a definition. But this definition is still insufficient, for we do not know what mass is. It enables us doubtless to calculate the relation of two forces applied to the same body at different instants; it teaches us nothing about the relation of two forces applied to two different bodies.
To complete it, it is necessary to go back anew to Newton's third law (equality of action and reaction), regarded again, not as an experimental law, but as a definition. Two bodies A and B act one upon the other; the acceleration of A multiplied by the mass of A is equal to the action of B upon A; in the same way, the product of the acceleration of B by its mass is equal to the reaction of A upon B. As, by definition, action is equal to reaction, the masses of A and B are in the inverse ratio of their accelerations. Here we have the ratio of these two masses defined, and it is for experiment to verify that this ratio is constant.
That would be all very well if the two bodies A and B alone were present and removed from the action of the rest of the world. This is not at all the case; the acceleration of A is not due merely to the action of B, but to that of a multitude of other bodies C, D,... To apply the preceding rule, it is therefore necessary to separate the acceleration of A into many components, and discern which of these components is due to the action of B.
This separation would still be possible, if we should assume that the action of C upon A is simply adjoined to that of B upon A, without the presence of the body C modifying the action of B upon A; or the presence of B modifying the action of C upon A; if we should assume, consequently, that any two bodies attract each other, that their mutual action is along their join and depends only upon their distance apart; if, in a word, we assume the hypothesis of central forces.
You know that to determine the masses of the celestial bodies we use a wholly different principle. The law of gravitation teaches us that the attraction of two bodies is proportional to their masses; if r is their distance apart, m and m´ their masses, k a constant, their attraction will be kmm´/r2.
What we are measuring then is not mass, the ratio of force to acceleration, but the attracting mass; it is not the inertia of the body, but its attracting force.
This is an indirect procedure, whose employment is not theoretically indispensable. It might very well have been that attraction was inversely proportional to the square of the distance without being proportional to the product of the masses, that it was equal to f/r2, but without our having f = kmm´.
If it were so, we could nevertheless, by observation of the relative motions of the heavenly bodies, measure the masses of these bodies.