Waves broken by an obstacle, and reading water by sunlight
How an object scatters a current's waves, and why the water-sphere rises and falls with floods
A single block of notes, set beside curling vortex sketches, states that an object always disrupts the natural order of oncoming waves: the orderly current a b, striking the object, is thrown into confusion and converted into another figure. To judge wave and current forms, Leonardo advises watching clear shallow water under sunlight, where the sun reveals all the shadows and highlights of the waves and of the things they carry. He adds that the sphere of the water rises and falls, perceptibly or not, with the greater or lesser floods returned to it.
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An obstacle scatters the current's waves (a b f)
An object always changes the natural order of the waves already begun. The current a b was of one order, but the object that receives it in percussion throws all the waves into confusion and converts them into another figure.
Reading waves by sunlight in clear shallow water
To judge well the figures of the waves and the courses of the waters, observe clear water of little depth under the sun's rays; by that sunlight one sees all the shadows and lights of the waves and of the things the water carries.
The rise and fall of the water-sphere
The sphere of the water increases and decreases, perceptibly or imperceptibly, according to the greater or lesser, more or less universal floods of waters returned to that sphere of the water.