River waves: vortices, bank reflections, and their crossings
Chapter headings on how water behaves between surface and bed, and how reflected waves intersect and rise
A set of short chapter headings for the water treatise, each paired with a drawing at the right: a swirling vortex at the top, then two column-like strips showing waves crossing in X-patterns and heaping up. Leonardo directs himself to describe what the water does between its surface and its bed and where it runs fast or slow, then to treat lateral obstacles on the banks of winding rivers, the intersections of waves reflected from opposite banks, and the rise of waves born where columnar waves cross.
On this page
What water does between surface and bed, fast or slow
Describe what the water does, in each given case, between its surface and its bottom, and which part of the water is slower or faster. This programme heads the studies that follow.
Lateral obstacles on the banks of winding rivers
A heading on the lateral obstacles set on the banks of meandering rivers. At the upper right a strong swirling vortex is drawn, the kind of turbulence such obstacles throw off.
Waves reflected off opposite banks intersect
A heading on the intersections that waves make among themselves when reflected from the opposite banks of a river. The middle strip at the right shows two sets of waves crossing in a lattice of X-shapes.
Waves rise where columnar waves cross
A heading on the elevation that waves make when created in the intersections of other columnar waves. The lower strip at the right shows waves heaping up at their crossing points.