The World's First Gravity Study by Da Vinci? 200 Years Before Newton

Over 100 Years Ahead of Galileo and Newton
Research Team: "Calculation Error Margin Only 10%"

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seung-woo] A claim has been made that Leonardo da Vinci, the genius artist, scientist, and engineer born in Renaissance Italy, was the first in human history to mathematically study Earth's gravity. This predates Galileo Galilei's gravity experiments by 100 years and Isaac Newton's law of gravity by 200 years.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 17th (local time) that “a research team from the California Institute of Technology (CIT) in the United States reached this conclusion in a paper decoding a manuscript left by da Vinci.” The paper was published in the February issue of the scientific journal Leonardo, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The manuscript analyzed by the CIT research team is the scientific work Codex Arundel, written by da Vinci between 1478 and 1518. On page 143 of this document, da Vinci left a sketch depicting marbles falling from a jar along with notes on a triangular figure at the margin.

Da Vinci marked the point where the jar began horizontal movement with the capital letter A, then connected a vertical line to the point where the marbles fell as the jar moved. The marbles falling from the horizontally moving jar form the hypotenuse of a triangle.

A sketch related to gravity left by Leonardo da Vinci in the 'Codex Arundel.' [Image source=The British Museum]

Professor Morteza Gharib of the research team named this sketch the “mysterious triangle” and interpreted it as depicting an object vertically falling from a jar moving horizontally on the ground. In other words, the sketch illustrates that the marbles falling from the jar accelerate as time passes. The research team speculates that da Vinci was inspired by observing falling hailstones.

Professor Gharib explained, “Considering it was 500 years ago, da Vinci’s calculations are remarkably accurate. The error in the gravitational constant he calculated is within 10% of the value measured today.”

Dr. Gharib added, “Until now, Codex Arundel has been studied only in the field of art, not science. If his other materials are investigated scientifically, da Vinci’s reputation as a pioneering scientist will be further elevated.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.