The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

→ See the front page for how to read the Notebooks by RSS.

Page 882 of 1565.
Previous / Next

Epicurus says the sun is the size it looks. Hence as it looks about
a foot across we must consider that to be its size; it would follow
that when the moon eclipses the sun, the sun ought not to appear the
larger, as it does. Then, the moon being smaller than the sun, the
moon must be less than a foot, and consequently when our world
eclipses the moon, it must be less than a foot by a finger's
breadth; inasmuch as if the sun is a foot across, and our earth
casts a conical shadow on the moon, it is inevitable that the
luminous cause of the cone of shadow must be larger than the opaque
body which casts the cone of shadow.

Previous / Next