Renaissance Man
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p2p
Perhaps most of us know him as the painter of ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘The Last Supper’, but what most of us do not know is the bizarre truth behind the Renaissance Man who was born in the 1500’s. Besides being a phenomenal painter, Leonardo da Vinci was also a great pioneer in the field of science.
Leonardo has conceptualized the idea of building many great inventions to reduce the workload of labourers and these included a number of cranes and devices to ease the problems of lifting heavy objects. For instance, he designed a traveling crane used in the construction of tall buildings, a hydraulic machine, and even a parachute! In fact, modern skydivers found that the design of Leonardo’s parachute offered a much smoother ride despite the weird pyramid-shape of the parachute.
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| Da Vinci's Parachute |
Besides that, Leonardo was also a great military engineer as he also drew the plans for a helicopter, a giant crossbow, a cannon, a submarine, a machine gun and the first fully-armoured car in history which could house 8 people. Did you know that the idea of bicycle originated from Leonardo da Vinci? However, bicycles only appeared on the road 300 years after his death due to the lack of finding suitable parts for his marvelous invention. It wasn't until the 1950’s that a professor from the University of California suggested that some of Leonardo's designs could be for a robot.
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| Left: Da Vinci's Robot. Right: Da Vinci's Tank |
“The Man of Both Worlds” had also contributed in the field of biology when he has done extensive studies on the human body and how it worked. He wanted to investigate more than just the mechanical workings. To ensure accuracy, he dissected thirty corpses, averaging about two per year during his studies. His notebooks from this time are full of exclamations of amazement. Leonardo is also widely claimed to be the first man to show the correct shape of the spine and the tilt of the pelvis.
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| Vitruvian Man; Drawn by Leonardo to illustrate the golden proportion of human's body parts. |
In conclusion, Leonardo da Vinci is truly a remarkable person who has contributed to the revolution of science and he truly reflects the traits of a great scientist. He embraced creativity and looked beyond what was considered to be impossible during his time.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
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