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Leonardo Da Vinci, a well renown scientist, is known for his artwork, inventions, and craftiness. Everyone today would agree that he was a man ahead of his time. He developed things like the portable bridge, armored cars, and flying machines. He also worked with cannons and catapults and was a scientist wanted by every country for his wide knowledge and ability to think outside the box. Many of his inventions and concepts came about during the Renaissance--a turning point for man in history. Da Vinci even developed the early version and whole idea of the battle tank. It was designed to be run by many men and be mobile along the battlefield (a moving fortress). However within the designs there was a huge error where two gears opposed each other. This sort of error would have made the tank incapable moving or defending itself. Experts believe that Da Vinci being the mastermind that he was was too intelligent and observant to overlook such a major flaw in the design and the flaw was actually purposely placed there in order to protect it from being stolen and used by other countries and scientists we desperately wanted his insight and inventions. What are some other inventions and ideas of inventions of Da Vinci that are interesting? Is there a underlying fact that you find intriguing? How are some of his inventions influential in our world today? I am looking forward to your responses
On Mythbusters, I saw where they were reconstructing a steam-powered cannon that da Vinci drew up plans for. The cannon did not work the first time they built it, because they exclusively used materials available in da Vinci's time, but their second model did work because they used modern stuff, which shows that his ideas were cunturies ahead of technology. Also, we saw in Social Studies how his paintings sometimes contained monumental flaws as well, such as unproportionally long arms, because he worked so slowly that any mistakes dried before he could fix them. It is kind of cool though how he drew a tank incorrectly to (possibly) keep it from being stolen. A neat idea, if he did it on purpose.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo Da Vinci invented a cross bow, and made drawings of a parachute. we may not use a cross bow a whole lot today, but the parachute a brilliant invention that's useful for today's man kind.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo Da Vinci also designed an eight barrelled machine gun, which was way ahead of his time.
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci also invented an automobile car. It was like the cars we have now-a-days, to start the car, you have to push it backwards to turn the gears and coil the springs. Once let go, the vechile is set in motion and is self propelled in a set direction. The car's current direction is set by the springs and gears. With that being said, there is no steering wheel to change the direction. Also, there is no suspension for the wheels.
ReplyDeleteThose gears & springs seem to be doing all the work!
Good thing they invented cars that are key automatic & have an engine because this would be a drag to do this!
Da Vinci also invented a cross-bow launcher, a armored tank or turtle tank, a water lift, landing gear for a helicopter, a machine gun, a thread cutter, and a catapult. His inventions are influential because some started the groundwork for what we have today and it shows the great things we can accomplish without such advanced technology.
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci invented an eight barrelled machine gun. for his time this is an unbelieveable invention let alone thought or drawing, this was only able because of one of his other inventions an automatic igniting device for firearms. Da Vinci is a legend the things he accomplished in his life time is unreal.
ReplyDeleteAll very good comments and some very intriguing inventions you've found. I did a little more digging into Da Vinci and it seems to me that his insight on the world was that everything came to a fixed point where we were at the center. A very egocentric way of thinking. Not in a selfish way, however, but a concept that humans were meant to see everything around them. This in turn lead to scientific studies with the purpose of explaining what wasn't known at the time. Do you feel that Da Vinci in essence displays the epicenter of the Renaissance? Who are some other scientists during the Renaissance you think spurred this ideology?
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci invented solar power which is becoming a very useful energy source in today's time. He also invented the calculator which is a very useful tool to helping make calculations in everyday activities.
ReplyDeleteI know that the man....Leonardo Da Vinci ....made a cross bow. It was a gun that shot an arrow. Crazy stuff right. Well I know him for his paintings in the renascence and how he was such a great painter. But I had no idea he was making cannons and flying machines. What a g. All the other scientists would be like...hey good lookin. Want to take a ride on my horse and Leonardo would be like hey girl lets fly-by genius......
ReplyDeleteI think that Da Vinci does display the epicenter of the Renaissance. Some other scientists that might have spurred the ideology were Johann Gutenberg (inventor of the printing press) , William Congreve (inventor of launching tubes), and Hans Janssen (inventor of the microscope).
ReplyDeletein my opinion da vinci was one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen. he was far ahead of his time and many of his theorys have been proven true and still are to this day
ReplyDeleteI think da vinci was a genius. he was well ahead of his times and he knew how to think ahead of others, he spent time on what he worked on and it shows since he is still remembered today as a mastermind.
ReplyDeleteYeah he drew/designed the parachute. Just think where we would be without that; with all this new technology now it has been so useful and has become a hero to generations (by saving so many lives) Thanks Da Vinci!
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci also had drawings of a parachute. Which for his time was very advanced for his time. His drawings were very infuential to today's world. His drawings were the basis of our parachutes today.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo Da Vinci imagined and drew up sketches of a parachute for a human being.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo Da Vinci was proved right on Monday, June 26, 2000, some 500 years after he sketched the design for the world's first known parachute. A British man, Adrian Nicholas, dropped from a hot air balloon 10,000 feet above the ground, after ignoring expert advice that the canvas and wood contraption would not fly. Adrian Nicholas safetly floated down to the ground.
Many of Da Vinci's inventions are very influential today. When he started a "project" he worked long and hard on finishing. Things like the parachute, cross bow, cannon, machine gun, and solar power have changed the way we live today.
ReplyDeleteYes all very good comments. It sounds like we are all in agreement that Da Vinci is an amazing genious that was like our modern day einstein. I was looking throgh some information about Da Vinci and I came across a letter he sent to Sforza asking for employment as an engineer bragging about his capablilities to produce machines, designs, and tactics that would surpass those at that time. Do you feel that Da Vinci is perhaps being a bit pompous in his claims? Where did Da Vinci end up being employed and what did he accomplish there? Does this match up to his claims?
ReplyDeleteone of his ideas that i find truly interesting is the vitruvian man. leonardo da vinci took a man and put him in 3 different poses, inscribed within a cirle and a square. he did the geometrical proportions of the man. he found out that the palm is the width of 4 fingers, the foot is the width of 4 palms, the length of a mans outspread arms is his height. leonardo was a great man when it came to math adn science. in geometrical ways he was able to proportion a mans body compared to other proportions of his body. fascinating that it workd out.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo was a very talented scientist and was employed by the Duke of Milan. He worked on a flying machine and many other projects that we have made in todays time.
ReplyDeleteIf someone that lived so long ago, still had the mind power to achive such greatness; why cant we do better? We have so much more technology and knowledge/understanding than anyone could have dreamed about back then so we should be able to produce inventions that far surpass those of Da Vinci's time.
ReplyDeleteOne thing i thought was very fascinating about Da vinci is that he came up with the first idea for a machine for vertical flight, the "airscrew." This along with him first conceptualizing the idea for a helicopter.
ReplyDeleteIn Response to: "Who are some other scientists during the Renaissance you think spurred this ideology?" Galileo Galilei was a very outspoken follower of the theory that the sun was the center of our galaxy, which caused his imprisonment eventually. I beleive his breakaway from what was thought to be true spurred a kind of ideology for the solar system.
ReplyDeleteRoseDesire,
ReplyDeleteI totalyy agree with you! Its funny cause i totally was watching reruns of the mythbusters episodes and thought that was pretty intersesting! i also agree with you that his thoughts an ideas were centries ahead of his time! i also thought it was nifty i was on the mythbusters web sight to see what else they had tryed uncovering on Da vinci's works..they found that his flying machines were also drawn unable to fly...it kindof goes along with why he drew the tank backwards.
alot of the things people are saying are things i would've never thought about. i didnt know much about Da Vinci but after reading all the comments i realize why he is such a genious. he came up with ideas from flying machines to cannon's... thats better than i ever came up with.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting the fact that a person can be so super smart yet have so little common sense. Yet not in a bad way! Davinci was a genius, but is it possible he was too smart? While he could have overlooked the gear problem in the battle tanks, was he so clever so also plan on a way for it not to be stolen? It's very interesting
ReplyDeleteOne of Da Vinci's other inventions was the ornithopter flying machine. It is very similar to the modern helicopter and it has been said the helicopter originated from Da Vinci's flying maching. His flying machine was never created, but it's still kind of cool to think that man thought about flying that long ago.
ReplyDelete@Dover, some very intelligent people lack common sense, such as Thomas Jefferson, he was a really smart guy, yet he answered the White House door with his robe open. Christopher Columbus thought the world was round, but he wanted to go to China to see a man with the head of a dog. But the whole gear thing was probably on purpose because he was genius about that stuff, and was done to throw people off.
ReplyDeleteReading this made me realize how smart Da Vinci actually was. I have learned about him in social studies and some in physics, but I never realized that he had come up with all those things. When I read this article, I knew that he had to be pretty smart with it listing only some of his inventions listed. Although, reading that he missed an important error was strange. It just shows that sometimes being very smart, doesn't mean you can't overlook something simple.
ReplyDeleteda vinchi was an absoulute genius. he made galileo look silly. making hundreds of designs and trying testing only half of them. he set precedents for todays society, without his genious who knows where we would be without his inventions.
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci was in many ways displays the epicenter of the Renaissance. He was an inventor, artist, musician, scientist, writer, mathematician, cartographer, among many other things. The Renaissance was an age of creative thinking and new ideas and Da Vinci was clearly a great example of this.
ReplyDeleteShell Maria,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the fact that Da Vinci was that brilliant makes you kinda doubt that you can be that smart. However, if you try hard then you can do pretty much any thing you put your mind to it. I'm sure you can do more than you think, it might not be like Da Vinci, but it could be great.
Da vinci has to be one of the smartest people in the world. He designed the parachute, cross bow launcher, machine gun, and many more things. What more can you ask from a man?
ReplyDeleteAs i was looking at a page off all of his achievements and I am truely impressed by all his work. not only did he invent stuff and was an amazing artist, he completed studies in so many different things like anatomy, alchmey, botony, astronomy, math, engineering, music, machines, flying contraptions, i mean this guy did everything. very impressive
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci also illustrated a design for a mechanical knight,but was created for defensive purposes only. Another creation he made was a multi-barrel machine gun. the purpose of this brutal weapon was to destroy the front-lines of enemies. this machine gun was easily accesible and allowed quick maneuverability when demanded.
ReplyDeleteDa Vinci invented the crossbow, as stated above a few times. the reason im mentioning this is because i love this invention! the cross bow is genius, and way beyond DaVincis' time.
ReplyDeletewhat didnt Da Vinci do ?! that is the real question....
Thanks for the comments this week.
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