Various Questions and Inventions

SECOND QUESTION POSED

by the same Illustrious Duke consequent

to the preceding.

DUKE. But tell me a little: in what way do you believe that artillery cannons/artillery pieces will have a greater effect, or penetration, in the object at which one is firing, by firing at it level, or elevated from the front?

N. To resolve this question without reproach, it is necessary that Your Excellency proposes such a question with an example or figure, along with the quantity of the distance of such artillery, and the quality of the place where one is firing.

S.D. I pose as an example that it occurs to me to have to batter a fortress that is on the summit of a hill or mound 60 paces high, and that 100 paces from that hill or mound, there is another hill or mound, equal in height to said fortress, that is, also 60 paces high (as appears in the figure below). Let us assume that upon the summit of this second mound, one could comfortably stand with the artillery to batter this fortress. This artillery in such a place would fire in a straight line, that is, with said artillery leveled (as appears in the figure below). And let us also assume that such a fortress could comfortably be battered by standing with the artillery on the level ground (that is, standing to the side at the foot of said second mound at the same distance), that is, standing 100 paces from the foot of the hill where the fortress is. In this place, the said artillery would fire while being very much elevated in the front, that is, it would fire at it from below upwards (as appears in the figure below). Now I ask you, in which place do you think that such artillery would have a greater effect, or penetration, in said fortress?

A woodcut diagram illustrates a ballistics problem. On the left, a fortified tower stands atop a steep, rocky cliff. On the right, two cannons are shown: one is positioned on top of a neighboring plateau at the same horizontal level as the tower, firing along a straight horizontal trajectory (leveled). The second cannon is positioned at the base of that plateau, firing at an upward angle (elevated from the front). Dotted lines indicate the paths of the projectiles from both positions toward the target.