→ See the front page for how to read the Notebooks by RSS.
Page 897 of 1565.
Previous / Next
That the sun could not be mirrored in the body of the moon, which is
a convex mirror, in such a way as that so much of its surface as is
illuminated by the sun, should reflect the sun unless the moon had a
surface adapted to reflect it--in waves and ridges, like the surface
of the sea when its surface is moved by the wind.
[Footnote: In the original diagrams _sole_ is written at the place
marked _A; luna_ at _C,_ and _terra_ at the two spots marked _B_.]
The waves in water multiply the image of the object reflected in it.
These waves reflect light, each by its own line, as the surface of
the fir cone does [Footnote 14: See the diagram p. 145.]
These are 2 figures one different from the other; one with
undulating water and the other with smooth water.
It is impossible that at any distance the image of the sun cast on
the surface of a spherical body should occupy the half of the
sphere.
Here you must prove that the earth produces all the same effects
with regard to the moon, as the moon with regard to the earth.
The moon, with its reflected light, does not shine like the sun,
because the light of the moon is not a continuous reflection of that
of the sun on its whole surface, but only on the crests and hollows
of the waves of its waters; and thus the sun being confusedly
reflected, from the admixture of the shadows that lie between the
lustrous waves, its light is not pure and clear as the sun is.
[Footnote 38: This refers to the small diagram placed between _B_
and _B_.--]. The earth between the moon on the fifteenth day and the
sun. [Footnote 39: See the diagram below the one referred to in the
preceding note.] Here the sun is in the East and the moon on the
fifteenth day in the West. [Footnote 40.41: Refers to the diagram
below the others.] The moon on the fifteenth [day] between the earth
and the sun. [41]Here it is the moon which has the sun to the West
and the earth to the East.