Never assume that Leonardo Da Vinci ’s doodles are meaningless . That , at least , is the takeaway of a new study out of the University of Cambridge , which prove that a page of Leonardo ’s scribbled notes from 1493 — antecedently brush aside as “ irrelevant ” by art historian — is actually the first written demonstration of the laws of friction .
It is wide recognise that Leonardo had an prodigious grasp of rubbing centuries before the modernistic science of “ tribology ” was codified . In his mock - ups of complex car , the Renaissance discoverer incorporate friction into the behavior of wheels , axels , and pulley , recognise its office in confine operation and efficiency . But exactly when and how Leonardo first uprise his ideas on friction has been a mystery story .
Now , a detailed chronologyput together by Cambridge manufacture engineering prof Ian Hutchings pegs Leonardo ’s eureka moment to a tiny , yellowing scrap of newspaper inked in 1493 . reserve in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London , this notebook computer pageboy was actually a issue of academic debate years ago , because of the faint-hearted sketch of an old adult female near the top , followed by the instruction “ cosa bella mortal passa e non dura , ” which transform to “ mortal beauty passes and does not last . ” But the vignette beneath these menacing words were dismissed by the 1920s museum film director as “ irrelevant notes and diagrams in red deoxyephedrine . ”
As Hutchings explains in his paper , those red scribblings are actually a pivotal moment in the story of tribology . They show engine block being pulled by a weight cling over a pulley-block — the very same sort of experimentation used in introductory physic today to demonstrate how friction works . The paper goes on to trace Leonardo ’s 20 - year study of friction from this initial incarnation to more complex demonstration and ideas .
“ The sketches and text show Leonardo understood the fundamentals of friction in 1493 , ” Hutchingssaid in a affirmation . “ He acknowledge that the force of friction acting between two sliding airfoil is relative to the payload pressing the surfaces together and that detrition is independent of the apparent area of contact between the two airfoil . These are the ‘ law of rubbing ’ that we nowadays commonly credit to a Gallic scientist , Guillaume Amontons , forge two hundred years later . ”
I think the real takeaway here is that we should advance scientist and engineers to pore over all of Leonardo ’s honest-to-goodness government note . Who know what other unbelievable perceptiveness were just … pretermit ?
[ University of Cambridge News ]
chronicle of scienceLeonardo da VinciPhysicsScience
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