1083

The straits of Gibraltar.

WHY THE SEA MAKES A STRONGER CURRENT IN THE STRAITS OF SPAIN THAN ELSEWHERE.

A river of equal depth runs with greater speed in a narrow space than in a wide one, in proportion to the difference between the wider and the narrower one.

This proposition is clearly proved by reason confirmed by experiment. Supposing that through a channel one mile wide there flows one mile in length of water; where the river is five miles wide each of the 5 square miles will require 1/5 of itself to be equal to the square mile of water required in the sea, and where the river is 3 miles wide each of these square miles will require the third of its volume to make up the amount of the square mile of the narrow part; as is demonstrated in f g h at the mile marked n.

[Footnote: In the place marked A in the diagram Mare Mediterano (Mediterranean Sea) is written in the original. And at B, stretto di Spugna (straits of Spain, i.e. Gibraltar). Compare No. 960.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XVII: Topographical Notes.
. . .
The Appenins.
1063,
1064,
1065,
1066,
1067,
1068,
1069,
1070,
1071,
1072,
1073,
1074,
1075,
1076,
1077,
1078,
1079,
1080,
1081,
1082
The straits of Gibraltar.
1083,
1084,
1085
Tunis.
1086
Libya.
1087
Majorca.
1088
The Tyrrhene Sea.
1089
The Levantine Sea.
1090
The Red Sea..
1091,
1092
The Nile.
1093,
1094,
1095,
1096,
1097,
1098
Customs of Asiatic Nations.
1099,
1100
Rhodes.
1101,
1102
Cyprus.
1103
. . .