The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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arises for my adversary since he says that, where the compound  
shadows intersect, both the lights which produce the shadows must of  
necessity fall and therefore these shadows ought to be neutralised;  
inasmuch as the two lights do not fall there, we say that the shadow  
is a simple one and where only one of the two lights falls, we say  
the shadow is compound, and where both the lights fall the shadow is  
neutralised; for where both lights fall, no shadow of any kind is  
produced, but only a light background limiting the shadow. Here I  
shall say that what my adversary said was true: but he only mentions  
such truths as are in his favour; and if we go on to the rest he  
must conclude that my proposition is true. And that is: That if both  
lights fell on the point of intersection, the shadows would be  
neutralised. This I confess to be true if [neither of] the two  
shadows fell in the same spot; because, where a shadow and a light  
fall, a compound shadow is produced, and wherever two shadows or two  
equal lights fall, the shadow cannot vary in any part of it, the  
shadows and the lights both being equal. And this is proved in the  
eighth [proposition] on proportion where it is said that if a given  
quantity has a single unit of force and resistance, a double  
quantity will have double force and double resistance.  
DEFINITION.  
The intersection n is produced by the shadows caused by the light  
b, because this light b produces the shadow x b, and the  
shadow s b, but the intersection m is produced by the light a  
150  


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148 149 150 151 152

Quick Jump
1 306 613 919 1225