The first experiments, made with the usual 80x10 strip, proved very disagreeable.  The subject was much disturbed by the blunt ends of the strip.  The variable (pivoted) line was then slightly pointed at the upper end, and in the final experiments, in which both are oblique, both strips were pointed at each end.  In Exp.  III. a line pointing at an angle from the perpendicular was set over against a line of the same dimensions in the ordinary position.

    Exp.  III. (a) F. (80x10) pointed up toward center at 145 deg.,
    V. (80x10).

    F. 40:—­(1) 39 48 48, (2) 60 66 68, (3) 97 97, (4) 156* 168*.

    F. 60:—­(1) 45, (2) 60 62 65 68 90, (3) 90 94, (4) 117 128 152
    155.

    F. 80:—­(1) 50 44*, (2) 74 76 77, (3) 94 100 106 113 115 116,
    (4) 123 124* 140 165* 169*.

    F. 100:—­(1) 36 58 60 65* 65 74 77 80 87, (2) 98 108 118, (3)
    114* 168 186* 170 136*.

    F. 120:—­(1) 40 46 54 60 63 76 96 97 111, (2) 115 120 126*
    137*, (3) 170 170*.

    F. 140:—­(1) 45 52 65 65 76 76 86 90, (2) 109 111, (3) 125
    140*, (4) 168*.

    F. 160:—­(1) 38 50 50 60, (2) 80 90 96 98 98, (3) 176*.

    F. 180:—­(1) 21 23, (2) 54 70 84 90, (3) 100 100 108 114 120,
    (4) 130 145*.

    F. 200:—­(1) -2, (2) 33 37 50, (3) 106 110 to 120 115 120 130
    132 138 142.

The most striking point about these groups is the frequency of positions far from the center when F. also is far out.  At F. 120, a position at which the mechanical choice usually prevails if F. is smaller, a very marked preference indeed appears for positions of V. nearer the center—­in fact, there is only one opposing (first) choice.  Now, if it is not the wide space otherwise left which pulls the variable in,—­and we see from a note that the subjects have no feeling of a large empty space in the center,—­it must be that F. has the same effect as if it were really smaller than V., that is, mechanically ‘light.’  We see, in fact, that the moment F. has passed the point, between 80 and 100, at which both lines close together in the center would be disagreeable, the preference is marked for inner positions of V., and I repeat that this cannot be for space-filling reasons, from the testimony of F. 200 (3).

And this ‘lightness’ of the line pointed in at 45 deg. is indeed what we should have expected a priori since we found that objective heaviness is balanced by a movement out from the center on the mechanical principle.  If movement out and objective heaviness are in general alike in effect, then movement in and objective lightness should be alike in effect, as we have found to be the case from the preceding experiments.  The inward-pointed line does not actually move in, it is true, but it strongly suggests the completion of the movement.  It enters into the ‘mechanical’ equation—­it appears to balance—­as if it had moved.