That part of the support resists less which is situated farther from its fastening.

Every ponderous body that moves, by nature or by violence, makes its course by the shortest way.

But that which freely descends directs itself to the accidental centre of the world.

And in descending, the heavier part places itself, along a perpendicular line, below the lighter.

If you let a quantity of water fall toward the centre of the world, and it is surrounded by air, certainly it will make itself a perfect round, and its centre will be the centre of the world.

And in the process of motion the heavier part of bodies makes itself the guide of the motion.

In the proceeding of motion the heavier part of bodies makes itself the guide of the motion.

Let the bolt be drawn with the feathers forward, and it will at once turn about.

That ponderous body which descends more acquires a swifter and more impetuous motion. Impetus is the increase of velocity in motion. It is caused by the fleeing air, which, thrust by the moved thing, in turn thrusts and drives away the air behind it; and the more it flees, the less it resists.

Whence the thing moved against it, finding less resistance, hastens the more.

It hastens the more, the less resistance the air makes to it.

The more the moved thing is accompanied by the power, its mover, that moves it, the greater the impetus and force with which it will make its course.

(The centre of any yielding support will lie on a perpendicular line above the centre of the accidental gravity of any body suspended in the air by it.)

The accidental centre of gravity of any body suspended in the air will fix itself on a perpendicular line below the centre of the cord.

If you made a well passing through to the other hemisphere, and turned a river into it, certainly the water would pour first from whichever part was nearer the centre of the earth. And if such mouths were at equal distance from that centre, such a shaft would fill equally; and if the river that filled it were just sufficient, such a river would pour equally from either hemisphere.

2, 4

Here I say accidental gravity because in nature there does not seem to be found any body whose material, from the centre to the surface, is of equal material.