Leonardo da Vinci's visualisation of gravity

Page from a note-book of Leonardo da Vinci which had been written in his reversed writing, mostly between 1480 and 1518. Recent studies by engineers of Leonardo's centuries-old geometric sketches of triangles concluded that they were part of his experiments in visualising gravity as a form of acceleration. On a hypotenuse he wrote 'Equatione di Moti' or equalisation of motions. The key aspects of gravity were understood by Leonardo not only a century before Galileo, but much before Newton and four centuries earlier than Einstein. Also, in the De Architectura of Vitruvius, the Roman architect and military engineer (1st century BCE) understood that objects fall based on their specific gravity. Leonardo's documents on groundbreaking scientific investigations and early mathematical studies are gathered in the Codex Arundel., by SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY