News from Italy
Another new invention of da Vinci has been discovered:
Vinci could dethrone Newton
“What caught my attention was when he wrote ‘Moti’s equation’on the hypotenuse of an isosceles triangle he drew,” Gharib explained. “I was interested in understanding what he meant.”
In his writings, Leonardo describes an experiment in which a jug moves in a straight line, dropping drops of water. It is clear from his notes that he knew that the water was not falling at a constant rate, but was accelerating (only vertically due to gravity and not horizontally, since it was no longer under the influence of the jug).
If the pitcher moves with constant acceleration, the falling water will create a sloping line, thus forming a triangle. Furthermore, if the acceleration of the pitcher corresponds to that of gravity, it will form an equilateral triangle (on the drawing of which the inscription “Equation of Motion” was noted).
Calculated with 97 percent accuracy
Experts announced that Da Vinci calculated the gravitational constant with 97 percent accuracy. However, the researchers reported that they believed the limited tools he used were the only thing that prevented da Vinci’s experiments from definitively explaining gravity because da Vinci lacked an instrument to measure time precisely as objects fell.
“Ciò che aveva colto la mia attenzione era quando aveva scritto ‘Equatione di Moti’ sull’ipotenusa di un triangolo isoscele da lui disegnato,” ha spiegato Gharib. “Ero interessato nel capire cosa intendesse.”
Nei suoi scritti, Leonardo descrive un esperimento in cui una brocca si muove su una linea retta, facendo cadere gocce d’acqua. È chiaro dalle sue note che sapesse che l’acqua non cadeva ad una velocità constante, ma accelerava (solo verticalmente a causa della gravità e non orizzontalmente, poiché non più sotto l’influenza della brocca).
Se la brocca si muove accelerando in maniera costante, la caduta dell’acqua creerà una linea inclinata, formando quindi un triangolo. Inoltre, se l’accelerazione della brocca corrisponde a quella della gravità, formerà un triangolo equilatero (sul cui disegno era stata annotata la scritta “Equatione di Moti”).
Calcolato con una precisione del 97%.
Gli esperti hanno annunciato che Da Vinci ha calcolato la costante gravitazionale con una precisione del 97%. Tuttavia, i ricercatori hanno riferito di ritenere che gli strumenti limitati che usava fossero l’unica cosa che impediva agli esperimenti di da Vinci di spiegare definitivamente la gravità perché a da Vinci mancava uno strumento per misurare il tempo con precisione mentre gli oggetti cadevano.
On the other hand, Galileo Galilei proposed in 1604 that the distance travelled by a falling object is proportional to the square of the elapsed time. Finally, in the late 17th century, Newton developed a universal gravitation law explaining how objects attract each other.
Newton’s enlightenment moment
Newton’s discovery came when he was enlightened after an apple fell on his head while sitting under a tree. The English mathematician had a ‘eureka’ moment in which he developed his theory of gravity after observing a falling apple in the summer of 1666.
Newton theorized that gravity could stretch further if an apple fell from a high branch, possibly continuing this process into space.
“What caught my eye was when he wrote ‘Equatione di Moti’ on the hypotenuse of one of the triangles he had drawn – the right isosceles triangle,” said Mory Gharib, a lead author of the study, published in Physics.org.
Stating that da Vinci’s sketches show a water jug pouring water or sand, moving along a straight line parallel to the ground, Gharib said, “Da Vinci’s notes make it clear that when an object is thrown, it will not fall at a constant speed, but rather accelerate. Also, Da Vinci wrote that the jug will stop the content from accelerating horizontally as it no longer affects the objects inside.” said.
“We don’t know if da Vinci did other experiments to investigate further,” Gharib said. “But the fact that he approached this problem in this way – in the early 1500s – shows how advanced his thinking was.”
