The Great Eddy: How Floating Bodies Move on Water
Which eddies are wide below; why light objects keep to the middle of the course
Headed 'Great eddy,' the note first asks which eddies are wide below and not above. Leonardo then explains that objects lighter than water do not follow the water's rebounding and intersecting course but pass through the middle, or near the sides where they entered. Where a right rebounding wave meets a left one of equal power, the point of percussion rebounds equally backward, so a floating body pushed no more by one wave than the other stays in the same line of course; only when one wave's velocity is greater is the body deflected.
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Light bodies keep to the middle of the course
Things lighter than water do not follow the rebounding and intersecting of the water but pass through the middle of its course, or near the sides according to where they entered, impeded only by equal thrusts. Where the right rebounding wave meets the left with equal power, the percussion rebounds equally backward, so a floating body pushed no more by one than the other keeps to the same line of course.
Deflection when wave powers are unequal
The eddy is asked to be characterized by which are wide below and not above. When the power of one wave exceeds the other by velocity of course — though not by so much power on account of greater size — the balance is broken and the floating body is deflected from the straight line.