Measuring the pouring vessel's motions: one mile per hour
Experiments timing 30 braccia in a hundredth of an hour, and doubling weight and speed
The verso of f.143 restates, in several forms, that when the pouring vessel's transverse motion equals the poured matter's natural motion the hypotenuse cuts the legs of the right angle equally. The recto of f.144 turns to measurement: an instrument records 30 braccia covered in a hundredth of an hour — one mile per hour — and Leonardo shows how doubling the weight halves the transverse leg (a b, a d), while doubling the transverse speed carries the motion to two miles per hour. He remarks that the same proportional triangle holds whether the motions are swift or slow. A flask is drawn pouring along the oblique line of the diagram.
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Motions of the pouring vessel compose a right angle
When the vessel's transverse motion equals the poured matter's natural motion, the hypotenuse cuts the legs of the right angle equally; the poured matter itself is the hypotenuse, and the two motions run along the two legs.
Natural motion double the transverse motion (a c, a b)
In the figure the natural motion a c is set against the transverse motion a b, which is double; therefore in this case the natural motion is double the transverse motion, and the diametral line shows the two as of equal motion and time.
30 braccia in a hundredth of an hour: one mile per hour
An instrument records the motion a c as 30 braccia in a hundredth of an hour, that is, one mile per hour. With equal transverse motion a b, equal sides from the hypotenuse are made by equal motions.
Doubled transverse velocity yields two miles per hour
If the doubled velocity of a e makes a longer motion in a d over the same time, one returns to the first triangle a b c, but the hypotenuse now cuts the equal sides at two miles per hour rather than one.
The hypotenuse cuts the sides equally in swift and slow motion
It seems strange that the hypotenuse b c cuts the sides of the rectangle with equal length in swift motions of a c and a b just as in slow ones; for even if each made a hundredth of a braccio in an hour, the hypotenuse cuts them equally, as if each made 100 miles per hour.
A flask pouring along the oblique line
A flask or vessel is drawn tipping and pouring its contents down the oblique line of the diagram, illustrating the poured matter that forms the hypotenuse of the right angle.
