Weight and force: the potential lever and infinite division
A weight hung at the center of a horizontal beam, with a note on the endless divisibility of matter
The page opens the heading 'Weight and force' and argues that the potential lever is never used up by any power, proving the point through the principle that every continuous quantity is divisible to infinity. Leonardo distinguishes what is divisible in act from what is divisible only in potential, and illustrates reversible change of matter with ice turning to water, water to air, and back again to water and hail. A horizontal beam bears a hanging weight at its midpoint at the top of the sheet, and a small circular diagram at lower right belongs to a wheel on an inclined plane.
On this page
The potential lever is never consumed by any power
Leonardo asserts that no power can exhaust the potential lever, tying the claim to a weight fixed at the center of a horizontal beam. The horizontal member drawn across the top of the page carries a single hanging weight at its midpoint.
Infinite divisibility and the reversible change of matter
Every continuous quantity is divisible to infinity; what is divisible in act remains divisible in potential, but not the reverse. As an example ice divided toward infinity becomes water, and water becomes air, which on thickening returns to water and then to hail.
Wheel on an inclined plane
A short heading introduces a wheel resting on an inclined plane, with the analysis broken off at 'the line of the cord.' A small circular figure at the lower right of the sheet shows the wheel and its supporting line.