Early Western Scientist
Early Western Scientists
Brittany M. Singleton
Honors 201
Newberry College
Early Western Scientists The Renaissance era is known to be the era of “rebirth”. This “rebirth” began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread north, including England, to other countries by the sixteenth century (Anonymous C 2013). The Renaissance was more than just a reawakening, this time period brought new discoveries both geographically and intellectually. Renaissance thinkers often associated themselves with the values of classical antiquity, expressed in classics of literature, history, and moral philosophy (Anonymous C 2013). Two important people that contributed to advancements of the Renaissance are Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler. Da Vinci was known for his world famous paintings, yet he linked art and science together. Kepler was the discoverer of the three laws of planetary motion. Leonardo da Vinci linked art and science together by his arguably most famous drawing the Vitruvian Man, a standing naked man in both a square and a circle, with a delicate foot that goes seven times into his height (Rywkert 2012). Both the circle and square image lay on top of each other to form one proportional image. The square image is a standing man with and the circle image is a man with his feet and arms outspread. The anatomical drawing is believed to be Leonardo himself. Da Vinci believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe “If you open the legs as to reduce the statue by one-fourteenth and raise the arms, the centre of the extremities will be umbilicus and the space between the legs will form a equilateral triangle” (Rykwert, 2012. pg. 98). This illustration also is the simplest in shifting Centre of Magnitude without the change of Centre of Normal Gravity.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man illustration shows his particular interest in proportion. The problem of “squaring a circle”
Brittany M. Singleton
Honors 201
Newberry College
Early Western Scientists The Renaissance era is known to be the era of “rebirth”. This “rebirth” began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread north, including England, to other countries by the sixteenth century (Anonymous C 2013). The Renaissance was more than just a reawakening, this time period brought new discoveries both geographically and intellectually. Renaissance thinkers often associated themselves with the values of classical antiquity, expressed in classics of literature, history, and moral philosophy (Anonymous C 2013). Two important people that contributed to advancements of the Renaissance are Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler. Da Vinci was known for his world famous paintings, yet he linked art and science together. Kepler was the discoverer of the three laws of planetary motion. Leonardo da Vinci linked art and science together by his arguably most famous drawing the Vitruvian Man, a standing naked man in both a square and a circle, with a delicate foot that goes seven times into his height (Rywkert 2012). Both the circle and square image lay on top of each other to form one proportional image. The square image is a standing man with and the circle image is a man with his feet and arms outspread. The anatomical drawing is believed to be Leonardo himself. Da Vinci believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe “If you open the legs as to reduce the statue by one-fourteenth and raise the arms, the centre of the extremities will be umbilicus and the space between the legs will form a equilateral triangle” (Rykwert, 2012. pg. 98). This illustration also is the simplest in shifting Centre of Magnitude without the change of Centre of Normal Gravity.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man illustration shows his particular interest in proportion. The problem of “squaring a circle”
Cited: Anonymous A. 1996. Planetary and Satellite Motion. The Physics Classroom. Ferris, Timothy. 1998. Coming of Age in the Milky Way. Harper Perennial. Westman, Robert