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A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, t · Galileo Galilei

COROLLARY II.

_And, for ampler confirmation, and clearer explication of this, let us consider the present Figure, (which if I be not deceived, may serve to detect the errors of some Practick Mechanitians who upon a false foundation some times attempt impossible enterprizes,) in which, unto the large Vessell E I D F, the narrow Funnell or Pipe I C A B is continued, and suppose water infused into them, unto the Levell L G H, which water shall rest in this position, not without admiration in some, who cannot conceive how it can be, that the heavie charge of the great Mass of water G D, pressing downwards, should not elevate and repulse the little quantity of the other, contained in the Funnell or Pipe C L, by which the descent of it is resisted and hindered: But such wonder shall cease, if we begin to suppose the water G D to be abased only to Q D, and shall afterwards consider, what the water C L hath done, which to give place to the other, which is descended from the Levell G H, to the Levell Q O, shall of necessity have ascended in the same time, from the Levell L unto A B. And the ascent L B, shall be so much greater than the descent G Q, by how much the breadth of the Vessell G D, is greater than that of the Funnell I C; which, in summe, is as much as the water G D, is more than the water L C: but in regard that the Moment of the Velocity of the Motion, in one Moveable, compensates that of the Gravity of another what wonder is it, if the swift ascent of the lesser Water C L, shall resist the slow descent of the greater G D?_

Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.

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