Hollister Leonardo

8/6/2019 Hollister Leonardo

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MANAN INVENTORINVENTOR GENIUSGENIUS

STUDENT LEARNING GUIDETUDENT LEARNING GUIDE

LEONARDODA VINCI


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Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci was an artist, a

scientist, an inventor and a genius.

Leonardo the artist gave the

world one of its most famous

paintings, the Mona Lisa, as well

as The Last Supper and The

Vitruvian Man that appears onthe cover of this special education

section.

Leonardo the scientist made

inroads in anatomy, zoology,

opt ics, geology, botany, aerody-

namics and hydrodynamics.

Leonardo the innovator was

responsible for advances in

hydraulic machines, cannons, tanks,

gear shifts, map making, catapults,

parachutes, engineering, automo-biles, hang gliders, scuba gear,

swimming aids and even sub-

marines.

He was so ahead of his time that

few of his inventions could be cre-

ated wit h the materials and manu-

facturing methods that existed at

the time he lived.

Leonardo, t he man, was born on

April 15, 1452, in Vinci, outside of the

Italian city of Florence. A keen observer

of nature with a talent for drawing,

15-year-old Leonardo became an appren-

tice to painter Andrea del Verrocchio

until he became a master himself.

In late 1482 or early 1483, Leonardo left

Florence and offered his services to the

Duke of M ilan, both as an artist and as

a designer of weaponry, build ings and

machinery. He also produced studies on

nature, mechanics, anatomy and architec-ture during his many years in the Dukes

court.

While in Milan, Leonardo also opened

his first studio , and started t raining

apprentices. It quickly became a gathering

place for artists and t hinkers.

When the French occupied Milan in

1499, Leonardo returned to Florence.

Having established himself as a creator

of masterpieces and a thinker of ingenuity,

Leonardo had Florence and Mi lan compet-ing fo r his time and genius by 1507. He

also traveled to Rome to work for Pope

Leo X.

Leonardo da Vinci left Italy for France in

1516 and remained there until he died in

1519.

meet leonardo

Quick quiz: What is Leonardo daVincis last name? Da Vinci? JustVinci? Actually, its a tr ick ques-t ion. Leonardo did nt have a lastname. His parents w ere never mar-ried and he didnt take his fathersname, even though he grew up onhis fathers estate. Da Vinci simplymeans f rom Vinci. Most histori-ans and scientists ref er t o him sim-ply as Leonardo.

the renaissance man

Dear Student:

Could you be t he next

Leonardo da Vinci?

Leonardo was infinitely curious,

creative and inventive. As youll

read in this supplement, he made

extr aordinary contrib utions inthe areas of flight, anatomy,

mechanics and more.

The special exhibit Leonardo

da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius

brings to lif e 60 models of

Leonardos famous concepts and

drawings. You can push, pull,crank and int eract wit h the

models in the exhibit for a better

understanding of the math,

engineering and physics

principles behind them.

At the Detroit Science Center,

its our mission to inspire our

visitors t o pursue and support

careers in engineering, tech-

nology and science. We hope to

inspire you t o become the next

great inventor, scientist, physicist

or even Leonardo da Vinci.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Prihod

President & CEO

Detroit Science Center

Self-port rait o f Leonardo da Vinci


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Leonardos WorldLeonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) lived in a

time and place teeming with possibilities

and new ideas. It also was a time of great

social inequalities, epidemic illnesses, war,

rigid class systems, witch burnings, The

Inquisition and religious conflict.

The Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci was a man of theRenaissance, which was a period of history

from the late 1300s to about 1600. The

Renaissance, which means rebirt h, was

a period of remarkable advances in

European art, philosophy, science, architec-

ture, engineering and literature. Nothing

like it had b een seen since the fall of t he

Western Roman Empire in the Fifth

Century.

In leading families, the Renaissance was

a time t o excel in the arts, learning, lan-guages, athletics and social graces. For

instance, a nobleman might make sure his

sons could dance; write poetry; speak and

write Greek, French, Latin and other lan-

guages; know astronomy and math; fence,

arch, hunt, ride horses and play an instru-

ment, among many other skills.

This at a time when the majorit y of

people couldnt read!

Princesses, high-ranking noblewomen

and daughters of particularly enlightened

parents would be educated as well, but

that was not the norm.

Leonardo was not a nobleman. He

received a pre-apprenticeship education

suitable for a craftsperson and only began

to learn Latin when he was 50. Nonethe-

less, Leonardo is considered the consum-

mate Renaissance Man. Today, we use

the term to refer to someone who can do

many different things well.

Power in t he RenaissanceThe political world of Europe was divid-

ed d ifferently than it is now. For instance,

instead of voting for leaders, regions

would be ruled by royalty who inherited

their power (or took it by force). Kings,

queens, princes and princesses from dif-

ferent regions would marry each other

to create alliances and strengthen ties

between them.

As a result, European rulers in

Leonardos time were a collect ion of near

and distant cousins by blood and by

marriage. Despite t his, rulers constantlyjockeyed and fought wars for more land,

better resources and a bigger spotlight on

the European stage. Alliances shifted and

borders changed.

Beyond the monarchies of kings and

queens, the Catholic Church held the

greatest power in Europe. Sovereigns

were beholden to no one, except t o God.

And as Gods representative on Earth in

the Catholic Church, the Pope in many

ways had more practical power than any

other ruler.

PatronsLeonardo, like many artists during the

Renaissance, worked for wealthy individu-

als or groups under a system of patron-

age. Patrons would support and advance

artists. The better the artist and the work

he produced, the more prestigious it was

for the patron.

When Leonardo was sponsored by the

Duke of M ilan, he was on hand to paint

port raits and work as a military engineer.

While a prize catch for any patron,

Leonardo d id have a huge flaw that

annoyed many of his sponsors. He accept-

ed commissions and began many worksthat he never finished. However, he was so

good, that some of his unfinished works

are still considered masterpieces.

You, like Leonardo, live in excit ingt imes. The world has changed d rasti-cally in t he last 100 years.

As a class, create a list of changes(good and bad) t hat have occurredsince 1908 in the following fields: med-icine, art, communicat ion, w eaponry,t ravel, technology and social equality.

Discuss what youd like t o seehappen in the next 100 years.

Activity

They CouldHave Had Dinner

These people were all alive

during Leonardos lifetime.

Kings Richard III (England),

Henry VIII (England),

Ferdinand (Aragon, Spain)

Queen Isabella (Castile, Spain) Explorer Christop her Columbus

Artists Michelangelo,

Raphael, Titian, Bot ticelli,

Hieronymus Bosch

Movable Type Printing Press

Inventor Johannes Gutenberg

Protestant Reformation Leader

Martin Luther

Thinkers Erasmus, Niccol

Machiavelli, Thomas More

Astronomer Copernicus

Model of Leonardos Hammerwith Eccentric Cam


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Leonardos NotebooksIf you want to form a mental picture of

Leonardo d a Vinci, think of him scribb ling

away on paper rather than painting slowly

and carefully.

Leonardo covered thousands and t hou-

sands of pages with notes, drawings,

sketches for his paintings and designs for

machines and devices. Compare this with

the fewer t han 20 paintings of his (some

unfinished) that exist today.

Some of his pages feature sketches

upon sketches.

One of t he most striking t hings about

these pages is the strange-looking writ ing,

which appears at first glance to be a secret

code. Actually, Leonardo wrote backwards,

from right to left. Hold a mirror up to this

page or t he front cover to see if you can

make out some of the letters.

Some historians think this was a way

to keep other people from stealing hisdesigns. Others guess a much less dramat-

ic reason: Leonardo was a lefty and did nt

want to smear his ink.

It is from his notebooks that we have

learned much of what we know about

Leonardos designs and can reconstruct

them for ourselves.

When checking out his designs, its

important to remember that Leonardo

lived in a t ime hundreds of years before

machines ran on electricity, before cars,before photographs, before TV, before

computers. Yet it wouldn t be far off to say

that his work inspired many an inventor of

the modern age.

Simple MachinesSimple machines including wedges,

pul leys, gears, springs, screws, levers,

wheels, axles and inclined planes are

the building blocks of all mechanisms.Leonardos inventions, like all complex

machines, are just a series of simple

machines cleverly linked t ogether.

The principle is the same in every case:

exert some energy at one end, and the

machine converts it into something else.

This conversion could be a change in

direction, a change in speed o r a changein the way effort is expended. For

instance, a seesaw, which is a type of

lever, changes the direction of energy. To

make your classmate on the other side of

the board go UP in the air, you sit DOWN

on your side.

PulleysLeonardo o ften used pulleys in his

designs. A pulley is a simple machine

that can help you pick things

up with a rope, chain or belt.

Pulleys loop the rope

around a fixed grooved wheel.

Pulleys are helpful because they

change the direction of energy

and also can distribute weight in

a way that makes heavy objects

easier to handle.

Change DirectionWant to fly a flag every day on

a tall flagpole and then take it

down at night? You have two

options:

A. Get a ladder, climb up the

pole and tie the flag to t he pole.

Then set up the ladder again at dusk to

retrieve it.

B. Attach the flag to a fixed pulley

system. By using t he loop of rop e sliding

along a fixed pulley attached t o t he top of

the pole, you can stay on the ground and

pull down on the rope to raise the flag.

Distribute the WeightLets say you wanted t o lift a 100-pound

disco ball up t o the ceiling. You could (if

you were an Olympic weightlifter) climb

up a ladder and lug the disco ball with

you, but you already know that if you use

a fixed pulley on the ceiling, you can just

pull on the rope instead.

mechanics

A 72-page collection of originalpages from Leonardos notebookswas sold to Bill Gates for $30.8million in 1994, making it the mostexpensive book ever.

the renaissance man

Pulley systems, like this one found in Leonardos notebooks, can make

lifting heavy objects much easier by distributing the weight throughout

a rope. The machine operator pulls down at the rope on the far right to

easily hoist the weight at the far left.

Leonardo sketch with signature mirror writ ing


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But that 100 pounds is still going to bea pain.

Luckily, you can use a movable pulley

system to distribute the weight in a much

more manageable way. You can minimize

the amount of effort you use by increasing

the d istance you have to pull. Imagine that

one end of the rope is anchored to the

ceiling. Then it is run through a pulley

attached to a ball. Next, you run the rope

though a fixed pulley on the ceiling. In

effect, youve halved the fo rce you have toexert by doubling the length of rope you

need to p ull. Youll feel like youre pulling

50 pounds, but youll be pulling twice as

long.

Fifty pounds is still quite a load and its

easy to cut down on the weight even fur-

ther just attach another movable pulley

to t he ball and another fixed pulley to the

ceiling and loop the rope through. This

will quarter the force you have to use to

pull 25 pounds but youll have topull the rope four times the distance.

GearsGears are important components of

mechanisms with spinning parts. There are

many types of gears, but the basic idea

is always the same: a rotating toothed

mechanical part engages with a matching

toothed mechanical part to transmit

motion.In simpler terms, when the teeth of two

gears are interlocked, you can turn one by

turning the other.

Gears transmit and t ransform rotational

motion. By connecting gears of different

sizes or at different angles or in a series;

you can accomplish a great deal.

Reversing the DirectionIn a simple gear series, called a gear

train, like the one in the diagram, turningone gear sends the other turning in the

opposite direction. Want t o keep t hings

moving in t he same direction as the first

gear? Simple: add a third gear for the

second gear to spin every other gear

in a gear t rain spins in the same direction.

Changing the speedBy connecting two gears of different

sizes, you can change the speed at which

the second wheel turns. For instance, if a

bigger gear had 60 teeth and a smaller

gear had 30 teeth, the smaller one would

go around twice for every rotation of the

larger one. That means the 30-tooth gear

spins twice as fast as the 60-tooth gear.

These speed differences are called gear

ratios. In this example, the gear ratio is

1:2. If a set o f gears were 90 teeth and 30

teeth, the ratio would be 1:3, meaning the

smaller gear would spin around three

times as fast as the larger one.

Want to make sure two wheels are spin-

ning at exactly the same time? Connect

them both t o t he same gear system and

use the same gear ratio for each.

Changing the AxisBut what if you need to change the axis

of the rotation? No problem. By using a

bevel gear, you can change the plane of

the rotation by 90 degrees.

Amazing InnovationsDid you know that Leonardo invented an

automobile and a robot? He was hundreds

of years before his time.

Leonardos wind-up car could be steered

with a rudder-like front wheel. He didnt

intend it for long-distance travel its

small and doesnt have a seat. It may have

been used as a prop at a feast or a pag-

eant hosted by the Duke of Milan.

The robotic knight Leonardo designed

was programmed though cranks, gears,

screws and pulleys to make various

human-like gestures.

During the Renaissance, engi-

neers used many d iff erentsimple machines in order t omake tasks easier. As a class,discuss each of t he diff erentt ypes of simple machines inthe left-hand column. Then,on your own, draw a line thatmatches the simple machineto a device that follow s thesame principles.

Activity Simple MachineWedge

ScrewPulley

Lever

Wheel and Axle

Inclined Plane

Spring

Gears

Device

Electric Fan

Staircase

Inline Skates

Window Blinds

Spatula

Rowboat Oar

Windup Clock

Archers Bow

Now, find a modern-day example of your ownfor each of these simple machines.

Left: A simple gear train. If you t urn t he green gear clockwise, the

red gear spins counter-clockwise, twice as fast. What will the yellow gear do?

Right: A bevel gear can change t he plane of rot ation by 90 degrees.


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The Dream of FlyingThroughout his life, Leonardo was inter-

ested in flight, but in his day, flying men

were only the stuff of legends and myths.

But not for lack of trying.

The ancient Chinese knew a great deal

about kite-flying, as did the ancient

Romans. So there wasnt a problem with

getting something up in the air. The ques-

tion was how to get a human in the air,

and then how to g ive him control of the

height, distance and path of his flight.

Leonardo was not alone in his quest

to fly. Dreamers and inventors had been

designing and b uilding flying contraptions

unsuccessfully for some time.

One of the most famous legends

from ancient Greece, in fact, was

the story of an ingenious inven-

tor, Daedalus, who made two

pairs of wings out o f wax andfeathers so that he and his son could

escape from a tower. The son, Icarus,

soared too close to the sun and his wings

melted, plunging him to the sea. Daedalus

flew lower and made it to safety and free-

dom.

In fiction, men could f ly. They just need-

ed the right invention to make it a reality.

Bird and WingsLike the fictional Daedalus, Leonardoand those of his time looked to birds for

inspiration.

The idea was if you could create wings

that were bird-like enough and large

enough to support a humans weight, then

surely you could fly. Machines of this type

are called ornithopters.

In his Flying Machine study, Leonardo

explored how birds wings fold. The pilot

would beat the upper part of t he wing

up and down and the lower part in and

out using an int ricate system of cables

attached to his feet.

In his Flapping Wing Experiment,

Leonardo thought that if he had been able

to push down the long lever rapidly

enough, the wing would have lifted the

weight of a man, which is represented b y

the heavy plank the wing was mounted on.

At first, almost all o f Leonardos flying

machines were ornithop ters that relied

on manpower. None of them worked and

Leonardo came to realize that p eople sim-

ply dont have the same muscle structure

as birds.

He needed a new approach.

flight

Leonardo observed t hat as muchpressure is exerted by the objectagainst the air as by the air againstthe body almost tw o centuriesbefore Sir Isaac Newton came upwit h his third law of mot ion thatfor every action, there is an equal,but opposite, reaction.

the renaissance man

Model of Leonardos Glider

Below: Model and orig inal

sketch of Leonardos

Flapping Wing

Experiment


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Model and original

sketch of Leonardos

Airscrew

Activity

You can design and test parachutesof your own by using hard-boiled eggsas passengers. Your goal is to create a

design that can carry an egg safelyto t he ground when dropped from t hetop of a ladder. You may work ingroups and may use any materials youwish. Before showing the class, do atleast five trials (or as many as you needto get y our design t o wor k). Recordwhat materials you used, and w hatimprovements you made aft er eachtr ial. Demonstr ate your invention t othe class.

Gliding and WindAfter his early failures, Leonardo

looked seriously at wind and aerody-

namics, rather than manpower, t o

keep humans aloft. His studies led

him to create a series of g liders.

The first recorded, sustained and

stable flight on a glider was not

achieved unt il t he early 1890s by

Otto Lilienthal hundreds of yearsafter Leonardo. But a glider based on

Leonardos wing designs was made

for a BBC-TV special in 2003. It creat-

ed more than enough lift to carry the

pilot a considerable d istance.

Look Familiar?The Airscrew is one of Leonardos

most famous designs because it

seems to be an ancestor of t he heli-

copter. The craft would be operated

by four men, who, by quickly rotating

the center shaft, could lift themselves

off the ground. It is clear that the

mechanism could never have taken

off, but it does get one scientific

principle right: when the air is com-

pressed it has density, and that is part

of what gives helicopters their lift.

Leonardos ParachuteIn 1485, Leonardo came up with a design

for t he first fit-fo r-human-use parachute, but

didnt test it (for a few obvious reasons).

In the year 2000, British parachutist Adrian

Nicholas tested the d esign, which calls for a

fabric pyramid attached to a wood frame.Fearing that he might get hit by the frame

on impact when landing, he made the first

7,000 feet of the journey after jumping from

a hot-air balloon using Leonardos design.

He then cut himself loose and floated the

remaining 3,000 feet to the ground using

a modern parachute.

In 2008, Swiss adventurer Olivier Vietti-

Teppa made a complete 2,000-foot trip

from a helicopter to earth using Leonardos

design but omitted the possibly danger-ous frame from his chute.

Model of Leonardos Parachute


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Becoming a MasterIn Leonardos time, young people who wanted to be artists

studied wit hin a formal system of apprenticeship.

When an apprentice first started t raining with a master artist,

hed do basic, low-level tasks, such as sweeping, running errands,

and grinding up and mixing the ingredients for paints.

Eventually, hed begin to learn from the master by copying

paintings, casting sculptures and drawing sketches.

The best students would be allowed to help the master by

painting backgrounds and lesser figures while the artist focused

on the main subject. The best of the best would become mastersthemselves and would be allowed to open a studio and hire

apprentices of their own.

There is a famous story about Leonardo and his apprenticeship,

which may be more symbolic than fact, but is still revealing. While

Leonardo was the apprent ice of the renowned and accomplished

master Andrea del Verrocchio, he painted an angel in the bottom

left p art of a work called The Baptism of Christ.

Leonardos out-of-the-way angel is the best thing in the paint-

ing. As the story goes, when Andrea del Verrocchio sawLeonardos angel, he put down his paintbrush forever

he knew his pupil was bet ter t han he was.

Mona LisaLeonardos port rait of Lisa del Giocondo, known as La

Gioconda or the Mona Lisa, may be the best-known painting

in the world.

Theres much to admire in the execution of the details in the

painting: the folds of the fabric, the delicate veil and the embroi-

dery on her dress. The composition and the use of light draw theviewers focus right to her face.

But the most famous part of the painting is Lisa del Giocondos

mysterious expression.

Today, about 6 mil lion people a year visit t he Mona Lisa in its

climate-controlled, bullet-p roof-g lass home in The Louvre museum

in Paris, France.

All are hoping to figure out what her secret is.

What d o you think shes thinking about?

leonardos art

Leonardos sketch of horse and riderLeonardos Mona Lisa


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The Last SupperWhen Leonardo painted The Last Supper

on the wall of the dining hall at the Church of

Santa Maria della Grazie, he took great pains

to make sure that each of the faces reflected

a distinct and strong emotion. The painting at

the M ilan church is meant t o portray the exact

moment in the life of Jesus when he reveals

that one of his must trusted friends will betray

him.

Instead of showing 12 shocked and d is-

mayed peop le staring at Jesus, Leonardo

port rayed the scene as an interlocking g roupmade up of four sets of three people each.

Each of these little groups has a dynamic of

its own.

The interplay and body language are fasci-

nating, as are the little telling details (notice

how the bet rayer Judas, who is turned away

from t he viewer, has knocked over t he salt in

his surprise).

The Da Vinci CodeLeonardo has been famous for more than

500 years, but he got an extra boost of star

power when some of his works were featured

prominent ly in Dan Browns best selling book

The Da Vinci Code and the movie based on

it. The book uses some cleverly mixed facts

and fiction about Leonardos works to create

tricky puzzles and mysteries for the characters(and readers) to solve.

Its important to remember that the story

is made up to be dramatic and entertaining.

If you want to learn more about the real

Leonardo, stick to history.

The Renaissance aesthet ic

or style was to make thesubjects of paintings look asreal as possible. One of theways of accomplishing t hiswas to create a sense of dept h,making the objects in picturesappear as if they were three-dimensional, rather than flat.

Leonardo used his masteryof linear perspective when hepaint ed The Last Supper.

Notice the ceiling and wallsin the picture. By making all ofthe lines that would be parallelin real life diagonal in varyingdegrees (except in t he centerof t he ceiling), Leonardo givesthe viewer the sense that thetable i s closer t han t he backwall, and that t he landscapeoutside is far away. Also noticethat t he men on the outsideright and left appear t o be

fart her away t han Jesus, thefigure at t he center of t hepainting, as if the viewer werestanding in front of the middleof t he table.

This is accomplished by creat-ing a vanishing point in thehorizon where all t he lines thatare parallel in real life wouldappear to meet if t hey contin-ued. These v isual rays are

called or thogonal lines.Look at these two examples.

One shows the perspectivefrom the center of a sidewalkand t he other from t he rightside. Which is which?

Look at The Last Supperagain. Can you f igure out whatthe vanishing point is in thepainting?

Activity

Leonardos The Last Supper


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Innovationswith Water

Water is useful stuff. Aside from being

necessary for d rinking, washing and g row-

ing crops, it can be used for transportation

and even generating energy.

Leonardo da Vinci explored different

types of travel via water, defenses and

weapons for military vessels and ways

humans could better explore and moveover water without boats.

Leonardo the mechanical engineer also

invented an automat ic saw that used

hydraulic power for energy.

Building Bet ter BoatsIn 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean

blue. He didnt have an airplane, though

Leonardo was working on t hat.

Boats were a solid Renaissance way totravel long distances. Many of Europes

kingdoms also had impressive navies for

war and battles against each ot her.

To protect boats, Leonardo invented a

double hull for boats that gave the sides

and bottom two layers of protection. This

defense system was a particularly good

protection against ramming. The idea was

that even if an enemys boat hit the side of

the double-hull boat, it still wouldnt sink.When designing the hull of his agile

paddleboat, Leonardo considered the

shape of fish, much as he considered birds

in his design of aircrafts. The boats large

paddles would have been worked by hand

or foot cranks and may have been aided

by flywheels. Unlike traditional boats with

oars, the design of this boat allowed row-

ers to face forward and see where they

were heading.For naval warfare, Leonardo made plans

to equip special boats with revolving plat-

forms on which lines of cannons could be

positioned or a large square mortar from

which projectiles could be fired.

water

Leonardo not ed, correctly, t hatwater leaving through a narrowchannel, blood traveling through theheart and air blown through a nar-row space all swir l in similar ways.

the renaissance Man

Model of Leonardos

Naval Cannon

Model of Leonardos

Double-Hull Boat


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Man Overboard!Leonardo created several inventions for

personal aquatic movement. One was a

set of huge swimming gloves to be worn

on the hands like flippers. Another was a

set of little boats to attach to your feet for

walking on water (this didnt work).

Other designs included an inflatable

ring-shaped leather lifesaver to be used

for buoyancy or emergency air in a pinch

and a diving mask with rings to protect

against uneven pressure. Diving masks

to remain underwater werent new, but

Leonardo tweaked the design and antici-

pated some features found on modern

scuba gear.

Hydraulic SawPeople in Leonardos times knew how

to harness the power of water to create

energy.

Watermills, which feature large, slatt ed

paddle wheels spun by flowing water, date

back to ancient times. The wheels axle

was connected to gears and cams that

could be arranged to change the speed

and direction of the motion until it wastransformed into something useful, such

as turning millstones to grind wheat into

flour.

Leonardos hydraulic saw worked in the

same way. It featured alternating motion

that transmitted motion in quick succes-

sion from the blade, which goes

up and down, to a carriage that

held the tree trunks. With this

design, the wood was pushed

forward as it was being sawed.

Model of Leonardos Hydraulic Saw

Model of Leonardos Leather Lifesaver

Leonardo was interested inhydrodynamics the waywater moves and the wayobjects in water move.Design a simple experi -ment to test a hypothesisabout the way watermoves or the way an

object interacts wit hwater. Make a list of mate-rials youll need. Createstep-by-step instructionsfor how to conduct theexperiment. Follow them.Report your results.Explain what you thinkthe result s mean in aconclusion.

Activity

Model of Leonardos

Paddle Vessel


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The Renaissance BodyWhen Leonardo da Vinci was studying to be an artist, anatomylessons were a huge part of the t raining. Artists looked at human

bod ies with an eye to structure, appearance and movement.

Leon Batt ista Alberti, a renowned author, artist, architect, poet ,

philosopher and Renaissance man of t he previous generation,

advocated that artists should draw figures with the full knowledge

of what t hey were made of bones, covered with nerves and

muscles, and then flesh and skin.

The trouble with that was Renaissance artists couldnt just look

at books on the human skeleton, organs, veins and muscles. The

powerful Catholic Church had banned the d issection o f humans

which means no one was allowed to cut open a corpse to see

what was inside.

When trying to figure out the interior anatomy of the human

bod y, doctors and artists had to rely on tradit ion, assumpt ions and

observations that could be made on t he surface of the bod y. They

also t ried t o draw conclusions about human bod ies from animal

dissections.

the human machine

It is nobler t o imitate t hings in nature, whichare in fact the real images, than to imitate inwords, the words and deeds of man.

Leonardo

the renaissance man

Looking InsideLeonardos early anatomical drawings reflect tradit ional (and

often wrong) notions about the body, such as the idea that breast

milk is created by the mother in her womb, and that the brain isdivided into three linked parts, each behind the other one that

perceives whats going on, one t hat processes whats going on and

one that stores that knowledge.

Later, Leonardo was able to make extensive studies of actual dis-

sected human corpses (it seems he was given permission by a few

hospitals though the Church ban was still in place). He set aside

the antiquated ideas found in the textbooks and meticulously drew

what he saw. His drawings were highly detailed and remained the

most precise anatomical drawings for hundreds of years. And,

being from the hand of a master artist, they were beautiful, too.

Leonardos sketch The Foetus in the Womb

Leonardos sketches of human exteriors and animal interiors


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LeonardoTeaches Surgeon 500 Years Later

Francis Wells, a modern-day British

heart surgeon, was looking at some of

Leonardos drawings and notes when he

made an incredib le realization. He wasadmiring Leonardos intricate studies of

the way heart valves open and close,

and how the blood flows within the

heart when he realized how he could

bett er repair his patients heart valves.

Up until Wells d iscovery, doctors

fixed faulty mitral valves which con-

trol the direction of blood flow by

narrowing the diameter of the valves,

which in turn limited b lood flow.

Though it worked, it restricted howmuch exercise patients could to lerate

afterward.

Wells observed t hat Leonardo had

noted that the shape of the valve itself

was an important factor in how it

worked. With this in mind, Wells

changed his technique.

After his style of mitral valve surgery,

Wells patients have reported dramatic

improvements.

Vitruvian ManMany Renaissance artists tried to

solve a mystery left behind by the

ancient Roman architect and engineer

Vitruvius. Vitruvius said that if you drew

a figure of a person within a circle and

a square, the center of the body would

be the navel (belly button). The prob-

lem is that when you put the square

perfectly inside the circle, in order to

make the navel-centered person fit , youneed to draw the arms and legs unnatu-

rally stretched-out in order to touch the

sides.

Leonardo solved the riddle by offset-

ting the two shapes and making the

navel the center of t he circle only. His

Vitruvian Man, which appears on the

cover of t his special section, is one of

the most famous drawings in the world.

Renaissance docto rs didnt have x-rays or M RIs or any other way t o see what w asgoing on inside their patient s. They had to rely on surface observations and unreliabletexts. Lucky for you, doctors today have hundreds of years of anatomical studies attheir disposal. Take advantage of that fact and explore the anatomy of your hand.Trace the out line of your hand t wice. Then, using reliable resources, draw and labelt he bones and ligaments in t he first outl ine. Then draw and label t he muscles andtendons in the second outline.

Activity

Leonardos Vitruvian Man


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LeonardosPredicament

Leonardo da Vinci loved life and

respected it.

However, he lived in a time when wars,

invasions and batt les between kingdoms,

duchies and p rincipalities were common-

place across Europe.

Building innovative weaponry was lucra-

tive, and its how Leonardo got his jobwith his pat ron, Ludovico Sforza, the Duke

of M ilan.

In his letter seeking patronage, he billed

himself as a formidable mi litary engineer,

and only mentioned in passing that he

also happened to be a great artist.

At first, Leonardo worked mostly as

a kind of defense contractor, designing

handy, smart and sometimes cruelly

effective weapons.

One was a gruesome war machine

propelled by horses that featured long

scythes, the type of blade t hat is used to

cut wheat in the field. You may have seen

one in a dep iction o f the Grim Reaper.

In Leonardos design, the scythes rotat-

ed in a huge circle and would mow down

anything or anyone in its range. Leonardo

didnt invent this type of machine, which

was ancient in design, but he did make it

more efficient, and gave the warning that

such weapons often wreak as much

havoc on friends as on foes.

He also created missiles, multi-barreled

machine guns, grenades, mortars and a

modern-style tank.

Years later, the art ist wrote about his

abhorrence of war, the inherent violence

of men and what he saw as the eventual

result o f war:

By their strong limbs we shall see a

great portion of the trees of vast forests

laid low throughout the universe noth-

ing will remain on the earth, or under the

earth, or in t he waters.

war and weapons

For at least a part of his life,Leonardo was a vegetarian anda great lover of animals. He wasknown t o buy caged bird s simply t oset t hem free. He also w as a talentedmusician. He sang well and playedthe lyre (a stringed instrument in thesame family as the guit ar).

the renaissance man

Model of Leonardos Scythe Machine

Model of Leonardos

Vessel with Scythe


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Mistakes on Purpose?Some of Leonardos designs have obvi-

ous flaws in them. For instance, in a

design he created for an armored vehicle,

he arranged the gears in such a way that

the wheels would roll in opposite direc-tions it would have gotten nowhere.

Its very likely t hat Leonardo created

these flaws on purpose. But why?

One theory is that he was preventing

others from copying his secret designs.

Some scholars, however, have suggested

a stronger reason.

Since Leonardo was a man who loved

peace but worked for a warlord, these

scholars argue that he created the flaws

to ensure that his designs couldnt be

used to hurt people.

BridgesLeonardo designed a few different types

of bridges that could be built quickly with

materials that were easy to find and to

transport (small tree trunks and strong

ropes) for military purposes. Since these

bridges made crossing rivers possible,

troops who used them could make fast

and unexpected movements, catching the

enemy unawares. Modern pontoon bridges

were inspired by Leonardos design.

ProjectilesThe study of ballistics is important if you

want to make the shots you fire hit the tar-

get. By experimenting with jets of water,

Leonardo figured out how air affects the

trajectory, or path, of cannon balls. He

designed projectiles that are incredibly

modern with aerodynamic shapes and

directional wings.

Leonardo designed his own versionof the catapult, which is one of thewor lds oldest war machines. Thebasic idea of a catapult is that a pro-

jectile is rested on one end of a leverin which t ension is stored. When t hatt ension is released, t he lever fl ips upand the projectile is sent flying. Thetension can be created by pulling

back a springy lever or by the useof counterweights.Try making a catapult of your own,

using only one thick rubber band; aflexible, but sturdy plastic spoon; anda soup can to propel a marshmallow.Through trial and error, figure out thebest way and the best angle to attachthe spoon to the soup can to get themaximum distance out of a marshmal-low launch. Hold a class competit ion.

Activity

Credits: The educational supplement Leonardo da Vinci: Man, Inventor,Genius was commissioned from Holl ister Kids for Detro it Newspapers In Education.

Copyright 2008 Detro it N ewspapers LLC. All right s reserved.

Support for this program was provided by the Detroit Science Center.

The writer was Mart ha Michaela Brown. The graphic designer was Heidi Karl. The editor was Peter Landry. The manager of Detro it Newspapers In Education is Sharon Mart in.

Models of LeonardosOgival Cannon Balls

Model of Leonardos

Mobile Bridge

Model of Leonardos Catapult


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