Coloured shadows, cord-weights, and De ludo geometrico
Shadows of a yellow and a blue light, accidental weight in cords, the ten motions of the hand, and squaring by lunes
A crowded sheet opening with optics: a body lit by a yellow and a blue light casts two coloured shadows — the shadow thrown by the yellow light reads blue because it is seen only by the blue source, and vice versa, while the surrounding field takes a mixed yellow-and-blue tint. Leonardo formulates the rule that the light which makes a shadow does not see it. Alongside are mechanics of cords and pulleys (the 'accidental weight' grows as the supporting cord's angle grows more obtuse, becoming infinite so no cord can lift it), a note that the hand has ten principal motions, and a query on whether waters of different weights share one spherical surface. From the central column downward the sheet becomes the book De ludo geometrico, squaring the circle through lunes, sickles (falcate) and sectors carried to infinity.
On this page
Two coloured lights cast oppositely coloured shadows
A body a stands between a yellow light e and a blue light d. The shadow cast by the yellow light appears blue at b, because there it is seen only by the blue source; the shadow cast by the blue light appears yellow at c. The field around both shadows takes a mixed tint of yellow and blue, being lit by both at once — 'the light that makes the shadow does not see it.'
Accidental weight grows with the angle of the cord
When a weight hangs from a cord looped over two pulleys set at the same height, it gains 'accidental weight' at every degree of height. The more obtuse the angle of the supporting cord, the greater this accidental weight — growing to infinity, so that no cord can lift it.
The ten principal motions of the hand
Leonardo lists ten principal motions of the hand: inward and outward, right and left, rotational, up and down, closing and opening, and the dilation and contraction of the fingers.
Whether waters of different weights share one spherical surface
Leonardo asks whether waters of various weights, contiguous at their lateral bounds, can share one spherical surface. The heavier water joins beneath the lighter and forms a spherical surface below it, while the lighter water forms a spherical mantle of equal thickness above the heavier.
Opening of De ludo geometrico
Having finished, opposite, various ways of squaring circles and the rules for proceeding to infinity, Leonardo begins here the book called De ludo geometrico, again giving a method of infinite process. Lunes, sickles (falcate) and sectors are used to give the value of a circle.
Dividing a 'maximum' lune into equal sickles
A run of sickle (falcata) figures shows a 'maximum' divided into two, three and four equal parts, and equal sickles set side by side. To halve a sickle, Leonardo draws out a subduple sickle.
