The rebounding of river water
Two causes of water's rebound and the lattice pattern of colliding waves
Leonardo explains that the rebounds of water arise from two causes: the roundnesses of the river bed over which the water passes, and the water striking the rounded parts of the bank and bouncing back from the opposite shore. Where rebounding waves collide they press against one another, swell upward toward the sky, and repeatedly drive each other back and forth, filling the river's surface with a criss-cross or 'latticed' figure that rises highest at the points of impact. A sketch at the top shows swirling waves, and a cross-hatched patch at the lower right illustrates the latticed surface.
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Two causes of water's rebound
The rebounds of water arise from two causes. The first is the roundness of the bed over which the water flows; the second occurs when water striking the rounded parts of the bank leaps back from the opposite shore. Leonardo treats each rebound as a distinct impulse imparted to the current.
The 'latticed' surface of colliding waves
Where rebounding waves meet, each presses and pushes into the first wave it encounters and swells upward toward the sky. The waves flee from the point of impact until another drives them back, so that impacts crossing in every direction cover the river with a lattice-like pattern that rises highest where the collisions occur.
