The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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When you want to represent a man as moving some weight consider what  
the movements are that are to be represented by different lines;  
that is to say either from below upwards, with a simple movement, as  
a man does who stoops forward to take up a weight which he will lift  
as he straightens himself. Or as a man does who wants to squash  
something backwards, or to force it forwards or to pull it downwards  
with ropes passed through pullies [Footnote 10: Compare the sketch  
on page 198 and on 201 (S. K. M. II.1 86b).]. And here remember that  
the weight of a man pulls in proportion as his centre of gravity is  
distant from his fulcrum, and to this is added the force given by  
his legs and bent back as he raises himself.  
3
81.  
Again, a man has even a greater store of strength in his legs than  
he needs for his own weight; and to see if this is true, make a man  
stand on the shore-sand and then put another man on his back, and  
you will see how much he will sink in. Then take the man from off  
his back and make him jump straight up as high as he can, and you  
will find that the print of his feet will be made deeper by the jump  
than from having the man on his back. Hence, here, by 2 methods it  
is proved that a man has double the strength he requires to support  
his own body.  
3
82.  
277  


Page
275 276 277 278 279

Quick Jump
1 306 613 919 1225