diameter of the hole as 5 to 6, or as 5½ to 6½, very nearly, if I took the measures of those diameters right. I procured a very thin flat plate, having a hole pierced in the middle, the diameter of the circular hole being parts of an inch. And that the stream of running waters might not be accelerated in falling, and by that acceleration become narrower, I fixed this plate not to the bottom, but to the side of the vessel, so as to make the water go out in the direction of a line parallel to the horizon. Then, when the vessel was full of water, I opened the hole to let it run out; and the diameter of the stream, measured with great accuracy at the distance of about half an inch from the hole, was of an inch. Therefore the diameter of this circular hole was to the diameter of the stream very nearly as 25 to 21. So that the water in passing through the hole converges on all sides, and, after it has run out of the vessel, becomes smaller by converging in that manner, and by becoming smaller is accelerated till it comes to the distance of half an inch from the hole, and at that distance flows in a smaller stream and with greater celerity than in the hole itself, and this in the ratio of 25 25 to 21 21, or 17 to 12, very nearly; that is, in about the subduplicate ratio of 2 to 1. Now it is certain from experiments, that the quantity of water running out in a given time through a circular hole made in the bottom of a vessel is equal to the quantity, which, flowing with the aforesaid velocity, would run out in the same time through another circular hole, whose diameter is to the diameter of the former as 21 to 25. And therefore that running water in passing through the hole itself has a velocity downwards equal to that which a heavy body would acquire in falling through half the height of the stagnant water in the vessel, nearly. But, then, after it has run out, it is still accelerated by converging, till it arrives at a distance from the hole that is nearly equal to its diameter, and acquires a velocity greater than the other in about the subduplicate ratio of 2 to 1; which velocity a heavy body would nearly acquire by falling through the whole height of the stagnant water in the vessel.
Therefore in what follows let the diameter of the stream be represented by that lesser hole which we called EF. And imagine another plane VW above the hole EF, and parallel to the plane there of, to be placed at a distance equal to the diameter of the same hole, and to be pierced through with a greater hole ST, of such a magnitude that a stream which will exactly fill the lower hole EF may pass through it; the diameter of which hole will therefore be to the diameter of the lower hole as 25 to 21, nearly. By this means the water will run perpendicularly out at the lower hole; and the quantity of the water running out will be, according to the magnitude
