Leonardo da Vinci’s sketchbooks show that he had an understanding of gravity that was “centuries ahead of his time,” according to a new study. The sketches, forgotten for decades, depict experiments to show that gravity was a form of acceleration over 400 years before Albert Einstein formulated his ‘Equivalence Principle’ in 1907.
Da Vinci’s Gravity Experiments
Da Vinci’s sketches show triangles formed by sand-like particles pouring from a jar. These falling grains depicted experiments to show that gravity was a form of acceleration. The sketches were accompanied by an intriguing phrase written in da Vinci’s mirrored handwriting, “Equatione di Moti,” which researchers translated as “equivalence of motions.”
Da Vinci’s Observations
Da Vinci observed that if the jug accelerates to release the drips at the same rate that gravity accelerates them towards the ground, an equilateral triangle is traced out, which is the first hint of the equivalence principle at play. He tried to formulate his observations into an equation but abandoned the attempt. By running a simulation of his experiment, the researchers found where he went astray. Co-author Chris Roh said in the statement, “It’s wrong, but we later found out that he used this sort of wrong equation in the correct way.”
Da Vinci’s Legacy
Da Vinci was a painter, architect, inventor, anatomist, engineer, and scientist. He filled dozens of secret notebooks with fanciful inventions and anatomical observations. Along with detailed drawings of human anatomy, his notebooks contain designs for bicycles, helicopters, tanks, and airplanes. Of the more than 13,000 pages of these sketches that were later collected into codices, less than a third have survived.
Lead author Mory Gharib, a professor of aeronautics and medical engineering at Caltech, said in a statement, “We don’t know if da Vinci did further experiments or probed this question more deeply. But the fact that he was grappling with this problem in this way — in the early 1500s — demonstrates just how far ahead his thinking was.”
