Two experiments on freely falling balls
Equal balls keep their interval; a later-dropped ball changes velocity and power
Two paired diagrams of falling balls, marked in the margin, illustrate a study of free descent. In the first, two equal balls one braccio apart are released together and, Leonardo argues, keep the same interval throughout their fall, shown between a and b. In the second, a ball dropped after another has already fallen one braccio changes its proportion of velocity and power at every degree of motion: having fallen from a to c it has travelled twice as far as one that fell only from a to b, and so is twice as fast, twice as powerful, and drives in twice as deep.
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Two equal balls dropped together keep a constant interval a–b
Two balls of equal weight and size, one placed a braccio above the other, begin their descent at the same time. Leonardo holds that their interval always remains the same size at every quantity of motion, as shown between a and b.
A later-dropped ball: doubling of distance, speed and power
When the ball has fallen from a down to c it has gone twice as far as one that has fallen only from a to b. Because of this it is twice as fast and powerful as b and will drive in twice as far.
Changing proportion of velocity and power at each degree of motion
If, after a ball has descended one braccio, another identical ball is dropped, at each degree of motion the two change their proportion of velocity and power relative to one another. The reasoning is developed through the labelled positions a, b, c, d and e.