Leonardo da Vinci described gravity 150 years before the discovery of Newton's law
Miscellaneous / / April 02, 2023
The story of the apple that fell on your head might not have been so memorable.
Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci described the principles of gravity back in the early 1500s, figured out Caltech engineers who re-examined the scientist's notes. That is, about 150 years before the English mathematician Isaac Newton, who is credited with discovering the law of universal gravitation in 1666, did.
The fact that he tried to figure this theory out as far back as the early 1500s shows how far forward his thinking went.
Mori Gharib
professor of aeronautics and medical engineering at Caltech
The Italian experimented for many years with a jug, water and sand. In their records he noted that water or sand pouring out of a jug does not move at a constant speed, but accelerates as it falls and always moves towards the ground. His records correspond to the principles of gravity with an accuracy of 97%.
He also tried to mathematically measure and describe the acceleration of falling objects, but failed. Using a computer model, scientists found that the numbers do not correspond to the proportions of the law of free fall.
“The calculations were wrong. But later we found out that he used this seemingly wrong equation in the right way, ”said Cornell University associate professor Chris Roe.
The only thing that prevented da Vinci's experiments from finally explaining gravity was the limitations of the tools at his disposal, the researchers say. He did not even have the means to accurately measure the time of falling objects.
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