A cone-segment floating in a fluid (Latin proof)
A scholastic Latin demonstration on the equilibrium of a right-cone segment set into a liquid
The sheet carries a dense passage in a scholastic Latin hand, described by the catalogue as text of another hand preceding the recto, set out in two blocks of small even script. It works through the equilibrium of a segment of a right-angled cone let down into a fluid, relating the body's weight to the square on its axis (the ratio of the square on a x to the square on a b d) and determining the acute angle its axis makes with the liquid surface. The argument leans throughout on conic-section geometry, drawing tangents and perpendiculars and proving pairs of lines such as a n and q n equal. No diagram accompanies the proof, which is carried entirely in words and letter-labels.
On this page
Equilibrium of the segment set into the fluid
It is to be demonstrated that when the segment is let down into the fluid so that its base does not touch the surface at a single point, its axis makes with the surface an acute angle greater than the 'excess.' The segment's weight bears to the fluid the ratio of the square on a x to the square on a b d, and the submerged part stands to the whole as the square on a t p to the square on a d b.
Conic section with tangent and equal chords
A right-angled cone-section a p o l is cut by the plane through the axis, its diameter b d divided at k and r. From o the line o s is drawn tangent to the section, p g parallel to a o, p t parallel to b d and p s perpendicular to b d; joining a to n, the lines a n and q n are proved equal and parallel to o s.
