871.

The Da Vinci Notebooks at sacred-texts.com

871.

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

p. 143

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 c d, 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.