researcher have discovered that sketches and note write byLeonardo da Vincishow that he was centuries in the lead of his time in terms of his understanding of gravitation .
A medical engineer came across a number of sketched triangles accompanied by distinction in da Vinci’sCodex Arundel .
" What caught my eye was when he wrote ‘ Equatione di Moti ' on the hypotenuse of one of his sketched triangles — the one that was an isosceles proper triangle , " Mory Gharib , lead author of the paper , say in a insistence release . " I became interested to see what Leonardo mean by that phrase . "
The experiment setup. Image credit: Caltech
The notes were flipped ( da Vinci had a habit ofusing mirror writingto avoid smudging , as well as his own shorthand ) , translate , and explored by colleague at Cornell and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland in Geneva .
The squad discovered that da Vinci had been grappling with the concept of gravity in the 14 and 1500s , and had conducted experiments that demonstrate his understanding . In the experiment , a ewer of water supply is moved along a straight credit line , dripping all the while .
Da Vinci showed in his notes and diagram that he knew the drips would fall vertically , no longer under the jar ’s motion , and that the water ( or sand ) would accelerate downwards due to gravitational force . He also drew the material body that the drips would make as the jounce was moved , showing a slanted line when the jugful was moved at a constant charge per unit .
What interested the investigator was that da Vinci take out one diagram noting that if the jugful is accelerated at the same pace as gravity accelerates the pass water toward the ground , the shape made is an equilateral trigon . Here he wrote the note " equatione di Moti " , which theteam translates as"equalization ( equivalence ) of motions . "
Da Vinci appeared to be present that gravity is a kind of speedup , far in front of his meter . However , when it came to mathematically describe the acceleration , he was off track – but given that he was knead without any exact way to measure fourth dimension , it was understandable .
" We do n’t have it away if da Vinci did further experiments or probe this question more deeply , " Gharib added . " But the fact that he was contend with this job in this style — in the former 1500s — demonstrates just how far in front his thinking was . "
The sketch waspublished in the journal Leonardo .
