The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

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Page 871 of 1565.
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_a b_ is the aperture through which the sun passes, and if you could
measure the size of the solar rays at _n m_, you could accurately
trace the real lines of the convergence of the solar rays, the
mirror being at _a b_, and then show the reflected rays at equal
angles to _n m_; but, as you want to have them at _n m_, take them
at the. inner side of the aperture at cd, where they maybe measured
at the spot where the solar rays fall. Then place your mirror at the
distance _a b_, making the rays _d b_, _c a_ fall and then be
reflected at equal angles towards _c d_; and this is the best
method, but you must use this mirror always in the same month, and
the same day, and hour and instant, and this will be better than at
no fixed time because when the sun is at a certain distance it
produces a certain pyramid of rays.

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