860

The fundamental laws of the solar system.

Why does not the weight o remain in its place? It does not remain because it has no resistance. Where will it move to? It will move towards the centre [of gravity]. And why by no other line? Because a weight which has no support falls by the shortest road to the lowest point which is the centre of the world. And why does the weight know how to find it by so short a line? Because it is not independant and does not move about in various directions.

[Footnote: This text and the sketch belonging to it, are reproduced on Pl. CXXI.]

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

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XIV: Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology.
. . .
Miscellaneous physiological observations.
840,
841,
842
The laws of nutrition and the support of life.
843,
844,
845,
846,
847
On the circulation of the blood.
848,
849,
850
Some notes on medicine.
851,
852,
853,
854,
855,
856
The earth’s place in the universe.
857,
858
The fundamental laws of the solar system.
859,
860,
861,
862,
863,
864
How to prove that the earth is a planet.
865,
866,
867
The principles of astronomical perspective.
868,
869,
870,
871,
872,
873
On the luminosity of the Earth in the universal space.
874,
875,
876,
877,
878
The question of the true and of the apparent size of the sun.
879,
880
. . .