event blog 2: Mathew Landrus & Claire Farago, Leonardo Da Vinci + Gravity

    For our second event blog, I had the honor and privilege of learning from and listening to Mathew Landrus and Claire Farago break-down regarding Morteza Gharib’s article surrounding Leonardo Da Vinci and his remarkable and–most fascinating–ahead-of-time conceptions of gravity. I really appreciate how Mathew Landrus and Claire Farago were able to hold such a powerful and engaging discussion of Da Vinci’s work surrounding gravity, and how this conceptualization was further applied in Da Vinci’s own art. I had no prior knowledge of Da Vinci’s involvement or insights regarding gravity, so I was afraid that I would be completely lost. However, Mathew Landrus and Claire Farago developed such a lovely and explorative conversation that was accessible and easy to understand. I really enjoyed their work, and I hope to share their insights as cool little fun-facts with other individuals in my life.

registration screenshot. 18 May 2023.  

    Throughout the conversation, I was really fascinated by Leonardo Da Vinci’s ability to conceptualize how acceleration of a descending body differed greatly from lateral acceleration (Magazu et al. 2018). Mathew Landrus and Claire Farago emphasized that Da Vinci’s notions came to light during an era of science and art in which society had yet to come into our current understandings of the world. Some of the understandings at the time included–the earth was the center of the universe; there were four sublunary elements; law of levers (Landrus and Farago 2023). However, these ideas were not as expansive and encompassing as they are now as a result of scientific progression of discoveries.

event screenshot 1. 19 May 2023.  
Claire Farago explaining Leonardo's World.

    Despite this, Da Vinci was able to create a conceptual understanding of acceleration of descension as a result of his own curiosity and drive for understanding his present. Da Vinci utilized a right triangle in which “the vertical axis represents the direction of the naturally falling motion of an object and the horizontal axis represents that of an imposed prescribed movement in a transverse direction” (Gharib 2023). In addition to this, Da Vinci further fleshed this out through Pyramidal Law in which a constant geometric increase of proportion was modeled in the increase from a smaller triangle into a larger one (Landrus and Farago 2023). This captured the theory that descension engaged in a sense of exponential decrease. Da Vinci ultimately used this law to model his artwork, creating accurate representations of these notions  (Landrus and Farago 2023).

event screenshot 2. 19 May 2023.
Mathew Landrus explaining the right triangle conceptualization.

Nield, David. “Sketches Hint Leonardo Da Vinci Grasped Gravity a Century Ahead of Newton.” ScienceAlert, 14 Feb. 2023, www.sciencealert.com/sketches-hint-leonardo-da-vinci-grasped-gravity-a-century-ahead-of-newton.

    Learning this reminded me of how–prior to the contemporary–art and science coalesced; they were not regarded as separate entities because they both ultimately functioned as moving parts in a greater whole. This discussion further emphasized how math imbricates with science and art because it is used as a foundation for understanding and sustaining. However, as we learned, these distinctions came into play as a result of overarching understandings and preferences for specific types/genres of education transmission, which was further enforced through the consequent stigmatization of both the arts and sciences (Snow 1959).

Works Cited


Gharib, Morteza, et al. “Leonardo Da Vinci’s Visualization of Gravity as a Form of Acceleration.” Leonardo (Oxford), vol. 56, no. 1, 2023, pp. 21–27, https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02322.


Magazu, Salvatore, et al. “Leonardo Da Vinci: Cause, Effect, Linearity, and Memory.” Journal of Advanced Research, 11 Sept. 2018, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123218300948.


Snow, C.P. "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution." Cambridge University Press, 1959.



Images Cited


Event screenshot 1. 19 May 2023.


Event screenshot 2. 19 May 2023.


Nield, David. “Sketches Hint Leonardo Da Vinci Grasped Gravity a Century Ahead of Newton.” ScienceAlert, 14 Feb. 2023, www.sciencealert.com/sketches-hint-leonardo-da-vinci-grasped-gravity-a-century-ahead-of-newton.


Registration Screenshot. 18 May 2023

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