(a) F. 80×10, V. Curve.
C has V. always farther from center than F., but a second parallel set, omitting F. 40 (all second choices), of symmetrical positions. O begins with V. farther from center, but from F. 120 has V. always nearer, though gradually receding from the center.
(b) F. Curve. V. (80×10).
C, refusing for F. 40, continues his parallel sets, one with V. always nearer than F., another with symmetrical positions. O begins with V. nearer, changes at F. 120, and continues with V. farther.
Recapitulating these results, grouping together the outward and inward positions of the curves, and indicating the distance of the line from the center by C.-L., and of the curve from the center by C.-Cv., we have:
It is evident that in the great majority of cases when the curve turns out it is placed nearer the center, when it turns in, farther from the center, than the straight line. The numerical differences for choices of the same type for the two curves are slight, but regular, and the general tendencies are more sharply marked for the line of greater curvature. When Curve II. is 'out,' it is usually nearer the center than Curve I. for the corresponding positions of the straight line; when 'in' it is always farther from the center than Curve I. The greater curvature of II. has clearly produced this difference, and the effect of the curvature in general is evidently to make its side 'lighter' when turned toward the center, and 'heavier' when turned away. Thus, all but the exceptions already noted seem to belong to the mechanically balanced arrangement, in which the suggestion of force working in the direction of the curve has the same effect as, in Exp. IV., the direction of the line. The exceptions noted, especially numerous choices of O, seem governed by some fixed law. The evidence would seem to be overwhelming that the reversals of the mechanical balance occur only where the lines would be crowded together in the center or would leave an empty gap there. The remaining exceptions—the symmetrical choices mentioned, made by C—are explained by him as follows. He says there are two ways of regarding the curve, (1) as a striving in the direction of the 'bulge,' and (2) as the expression of a power that presses together; and that the usual choices are the result of the first point of view, the symmetrical choices of the second. Naturally, a pressure bending down the line would be conceived as working in a vertical direction, and the line would be treated as another (80×10)—giving, as is the case, symmetrical positions. Thus, we may consider the principle of the suggestion of movement by a curve, as giving the same effect as if the movement suggested had actually taken place, to have been established, the positive evidence being strong, and the exceptions accounted for. It is worth noting that the curve-out series are always more irregular—the subject repeating that it is always harder to choose for that position. Probably the demands of space-filling come into sharper conflict with the tendency to mechanical balance, which for the outward curve would always widely separate the two lines.
Exp. V. Curve III. See Fig. 12, III.
A series with the upper end turned out from the center was unanimously pronounced as ugly. The inward position only appears in the results, which are given in full.
| (a) F. (80×10), V. CURVE. | ||||||||
| F. | V. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O. | C. | |||||||
| 40 | 106 | 126 | 68 | 73 | ||||
| 80 | 106 | 128 | 109 | 102 | ||||
| 120 | 140 | 88 | 156 | 110* | 154 | 72* | ||
| 160 | 104 | 66 | 182 | 80 | 136* | 130* | ||
| 200 | X | 52 | 178 | 220* | 162 | |||
| (b) F. CURVE, V. (80×10) | ||||||||
| F. | V. | |||||||
| O. | C. | |||||||
| 40 | 126 | 122 | 73 | 80 | ||||
| 80 | 122 | 128 | 66 | 112* | 40 | |||
| 120 | 90 | 116 | 97 | 156* | 55 | 105 | ||
| 160 | 65 | 43 | 120 | 182* | 87 | 134 | ||
| 200 | 70 | 50 | 148 | 66 | ||||