GALILEO AND THE NEW PHYSICS 



washing the surface of the board, for the water having 

 once got between the board and the air will run to- 

 gether, and the ebony will go to the bottom; and if it 

 does not, you have won the day. 



"But me thinks I hear some of my antagonists cun- 

 ningly opposing this, and telling me that they will not 

 on any account allow their boards to be wetted, because 

 the weight of the water so added, by making it heavier 

 than it was before, draws it to the bottom, and that 

 the addition of new weight is contrary to our agree- 

 ment, which was that the matter should be the same. 



"To this I answer, first, that nobody can suppose 

 bodies to be put into the water without their being wet, 

 nor do I wish to do more to the board than you may 

 do to the ball. Moreover, it is not true that the board 

 sinks on account of the weight of the water added in 

 the washing ; for I will put ten or twenty drops on the 

 floating board, and so long as they stand separate it 

 shall not sink; but if the board be taken out and all 

 that water wiped off, and the whole surface bathed 

 with one single drop, and put it again upon the water, 

 there is no question but it will sink, the other water 

 running to cover it, being no longer hindered by the 

 air. In the next place, it is altogether false that water 

 can in any way increase the weight of bodies immersed 

 in it, for water has no weight in water, since it does not 

 sink. Now just as he who should say that brass by 

 its own nature sinks, but that when formed into the 

 shape of a kettle it acquires from that figure the virtue 

 of lying in water without sinking, would say what is 

 false, because that is not purely brass which then is 

 put into the water, but a compound of brass and air; 



109 



