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
Horizontall plain: and in summe, alwayes both in like Inclinations.
This proportion between the Gravity and Velocity is found in all
Mechanicall Instruments: and is considered by _Aristotle_, as a
Principle in his _Mechanicall Questions_; whereupon we also may take
it for a true Assumption, That
AXIOME III.
_Weights absolutely unequall, do alternately counterpoyse and
become of equall Moments, as oft as their Gravities, with
contrary proportion, answer to the Velocity of their Motions._
That is to say, that by how much the one is less grave than the other,
by so much is it in a constitution of moving more swiftly than that.
Having prefatically explicated these things, we may begin to enquire,
what Bodyes those are which totally submerge in Water, and go to the
Bottom, and which those that by constraint float on the top, so that
being thrust by violence under Water, they return to swim, with one
part of their Mass visible above the Surface of the Water: and this we
will do by considering the respective operation of the said Solids,
and of Water: Which operation followes the Submersion and sinking; and
this it is[6], That in the Submersion that the Solid maketh, being
depressed downwards by its proper Gravity, it comes to drive away the
water from the place where it successively subenters, and the water
repulsed riseth and ascends above its first levell, to which Ascent on
the other side it, as being a grave Body of its own nature, resists:
And because the descending Solid more and more immerging, greater and
greater quantity of Water ascends, till the whole Sollid be submerged;
its necessary to compare the Moments of the Resistance of the water to
Ascension, with the Moments of the pressive Gravity of the Solid: And
if the Moments of the Resistance of the water, shall equalize the
Moments of the Solid, before its totall Immersion[7]; in this case
doubtless there shall be made an _Equilibrium_, nor shall the Body
sink any farther. But if the Moment of the Solid, shall alwayes exceed
the Moments wherewith the repulsed water successively makes
Resistance[8], that Solid shall not only wholly submerge under water, but
shall descend to the Bottom. But if, lastly, in the instant of totall
Submersion, the equality shall be made between the Moments of the
prement Solid, and the resisting Water[9]; then shall rest, ensue, and
the said Solid shall be able to rest indifferently, in whatsoever part
of the water. By this time is manifest the necessity of comparing the
Gravity of the water, and of the Solid[10]; and this comparison might at
first sight seem sufficient to conclude and determine which are the
Solids that float a-top, and which those that sink to the Bottom in
the water, asserting that those shall float which are lesse grave _in
specie_ than the water, and those submerge, which are _in specie_ more
grave. For it seems in appearance, that the Sollid in sinking
continually, raiseth so much Water in Mass, as answers to the parts of
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