A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, the Water.Galilei, Galileo
Science
A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, the Water.
Galilei, Galileo
Hydrostatics; Specific gravity
Because if we reassume what hath been above demonstrated, of Prisms
and Cylinders, and that on Bases equall to those of the said
Cylinders, we make Cones of the same Matter, and three times as high
as the Cylinders, they shall rest afloat, for that in Mass and Gravity
they shall be equall to those Cylinders, and by having their Bases
equall to those of the Cylinders, they shall leave equall Masses of
Air included within the Ramparts. This, which for Example sake hath
been demonstrated, in Prisms, Cylinders, Cones and Piramids, might be
proved in all other Solid Figures, but it would require a whole Volume
(such is the multitude and variety of their Symptoms and Accidents) to
comprehend the particuler demonstration of them all, and of their
severall Segments: but I will to avoid prolixity in the present
Discourse, content my self, that by what I have declared every one of
ordinary Capacity may comprehend, that there is not any Matter so
grave, no not Gold it self, of which one may not form all sorts of
Figures, which by vertue of the superiour Air adherent to them, and
not by the Waters Resistance of Penetration, do remain afloat, so that
they sink not. Nay, farther, I will shew, for removing that Error,
that,
THEOREME XI.
[Sidenote: A Piramide or Cone, demitted with the Point downwards
shal swim, with its Base downward shall sink.]
_A Piramide or Cone put into the Water, with the Point downward
shall swimme, and the same put with the Base downwards shall
sinke, and it shall be impossible to make it float._
Now the quite contrary would happen, if the difficulty of Penetrating
the water, were that which had hindred the descent, for that the said
Cone is far apter to pierce and penetrate with its sharp Point, than
with its broad and spacious Base.
And, to demonstrate this, let the Cone be _A B C_, twice as grave as
the water, and let its height be tripple to the height of the Rampart
_D A E C_: I say, first, that being put lightly into the water with
the Point downwards, it shall not descend to the bottom: for the
Aeriall Cylinder contained betwixt the Ramparts _D A C E_, is equall
in Mass to the Cone _A B C_; so that the whole Mass of the Solid
compounded of the Air _D A C E_, and of the Cone _A B C_, shall be
double to the Cone _A C B_: And, because the Cone _A B C_ is supposed
to be of Matter double in Gravity to the water, therefore as much
water as the whole Masse _D A B C E_, placed beneath the Levell of the
water, weighs as much as the Cone _A B C_: and, therefore, there shall
be an _Equilibrium_, and the Cone _A B C_ shall descend no lower. Now,
I say farther, that the same Cone placed with the Base downwards,
shall sink to the bottom, without any possibility of returning again,
by any means to swimme.
[Illustration]
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