How Falling Water Sorts Sand by Size and Weight
Where water leaves the sand lined, level, thick, or mixed; how percussion carries off the heaviest first
A companion to the preceding page, this sheet asks where receding water leaves the sand lined, leveled, thick, minute, or pure, and where mixed with particles of straw, wood, and leaves. Leonardo states that water falling from a height removes the largest resistant things where it strikes hardest, then carries the heaviest along with the greatest and fastest current, and conversely the lightest with the slowest and weakest water. An overhead drawing shows water receding and leaving a lined pattern on the sand.
On this page
Percussion and the carrying power of water
Water falls from its heights, and where it gives the greatest percussion it removes the largest things that are likely to resist; afterwards it carries the heaviest things with the greatest and fastest current, and conversely the lightest with the slowest and weakest water.
Where water leaves the sand lined or mixed
Leonardo asks where the water leaves the sand with lines, where leveled, where thick, where minute, where pure, and where mixed with various particles of blades of straw, pieces of wood, and leaves.