Triangular Balance Problems and a Semicircle Riddle
A statics problem in weights, and whether a triangle in a half-circle can lack a right angle
A sparse, faintly inked page. One note, keyed to a figure, poses a problem of statics: given 2, 3 and 4 weights hung on a triangular balance, find each one's distance from the central line, and asks how the three arms would stand. A second, verse-like line raises the geometric question whether from a half-circle a triangle can be made that would not have a right angle. At the left a semicircle with an inscribed triangle is drawn; balance-arm sketches and a faint bird-like form appear elsewhere on the sheet.
On this page
A triangle inscribed in a semicircle
In a rhyming line Leonardo asks whether from a half-circle a triangle can be made such that it would have no right angle. The semicircle drawn at the left, with a triangle spanning its diameter, illustrates the question of the angle inscribed in a semicircle.
Distances of three weights on a triangular balance
Keyed to a figure, Leonardo sets a problem: given 2, 3 and 4 weights hung on the triangular balance, tell what distance each has from the central line, and how the three arms would then stand. The note is posed as an exercise rather than solved.