Impact of colliding spheres, with geometry of solids and circles
Studies toward a treatise on percussion, with the surfaces of cylinder and cone and the division of circles
On blue paper Leonardo works out the science of percussion, arguing that a sphere delivers its full weight only when struck on the central line of its motion, and that blows off that line split into reflected, incident and rotating components. A marginal note lays out a treatise on percussion in five books, from rigid bodies to liquids and bendable materials. Interleaved geometrical figures treat the surfaces of the cylinder and cone and the division of circles, including that a cylinder's surface is quadruple its base when base-diameter equals axis. Small shapes, a square, a triangle and a circle, and a vase accompany the diagrams.
On this page
A blow counts for the sphere's full weight only on the central line
No percussion made by a sphere counts for the whole weight of that sphere unless it is made with the front of its diameter, when that diameter lies on the central line of its motion. The nearer the diameter to the central line, the more powerful the blow; the more remote, the weaker. A blow struck off the central line is worth twice the smaller part of the sphere left outside the course.
Plan of a treatise on percussion in five books
The subject is divided into books: the first demonstrates the percussion of two bodies, one moving the percussor against an immobile struck body, the other moving percussors and struck bodies alternately against each other; the third treats liquid materials; the fourth bendable bodies; the fifth...
Imperfect percussion strikes with only part of its weight
The figure a strikes site n m at point p with invalid percussion, for of all its weight only the line r p strikes; no reflected motion is generated. Such a blow is next to nothing, as seen when the body descends through air and turns with the arrow of its arc toward the centre of motion.
Two moving bodies of unequal speed: power 10 against power 20
Moving bodies of various powers are classified by weight and speed, equal or unequal in each. Strike the ball on the central line of its motion and it returns by the path it came; strike it on the smaller portion and it neither returns nor advances but bends transversely, losing as much impetus as the power of the blow.
The cylinder's surface is quadruple its base
When the diameter of a cylinder's base equals its axis, the surface of the cylinder is quadruple its base.
A cone whose slant equals its base diameter equals a double semicircle
The surface of the cone whose slant-side equals the diameter of its base is equal to a semicircle double that base. All straight lines from the base to the apex are equal by the cone's definition, and the slant has been made equal to the base diameter.
