Ball on an inclined plane: time and velocity of descent
Suspended-rod schemes and a ball that gains a degree of velocity at each degree of motion
Two suspended-rod balance diagrams with fractional weight labels share the sheet with a drawing of a ball descending inside a curved (inclined) plane, marked S, r, a, b and c. Leonardo argues that the times of descent along the two paths follow the proportion of the bases a b and b c, so that the motion S c stands to the motion S a as those bases do. Short notes add that a descending body acquires one degree of velocity for every degree of motion, and that it turns over on the far side.
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Proportion of descent times on the curved plane
The proportion that base a b has to base b c is claimed to govern the times of the motions S c and S a. When the ball S has descended one way to a, it will not by the other way, in the same time, have fallen lower than r, taking twice the time along S c.
A degree of velocity gained at each degree of motion
A thing that descends acquires, at every degree of motion, one degree of velocity. The remark accompanies the falling-ball figure and its lettered points p and o.
Fractional weights on the suspended rods
The upper balance schemes carry loads written as fractions of thirty-fifths, one arm totalling eight and 280/35. Whole-number pairs on the second rod tally the balancing quantities.
