Percussion and a cord loaded over a level beam
Two mechanical propositions on impact and on a rope bearing two weights
Six lines of faint red-chalk mirror-writing (the page turned upside down in the scan) set out two propositions on mechanics. The first states that anything attached to a struck body moves toward the point of the blow. The second considers a cord passed over a level beam with unequal weights knotted to its ends, arguing where the cord presses hardest on the beam.
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Motion toward the point of a blow
The first proposition holds that everything hung or joined to bodies that are struck moves toward the place of the blow. It is a general rule about how percussion carries attached matter along with the impact.
Where a loaded cord presses on a beam
The second proposition treats a cord turned over a level beam with a weight knotted at each end. It reasons that the cord presses on the beam most strongly at the part nearer the greater of the two hanging weights.