The crushing weight of deep water
An aphorism on water pressure, with a faint indeterminate red-chalk sketch
A short pen note reflects on the force of water at great depth: a man lying on the seabed under 1000 braccia of water would be crushed by its weight. Above the note a very faint red-chalk sketch of an indeterminate curved form is barely visible; e-Leo records it only as an indeterminate figure written upside down. The page pairs a physical intuition about hydrostatic weight with an unfinished drawing.
On this page
A man crushed by 1000 braccia of water
Leonardo imagines the sea settled on its bed and a man lying on that bed beneath a column of water 1000 braccia deep. The enormous weight pressing down, he reasons, would make the body burst. The note treats the overlying water purely as a load pressing on the body below.