Leonardo Da Vinci's Accomplishments

The yearning for knowledge and understanding of the world reignited during the Renaissance. The time period set the perfect environment for a rebirth in learning and the acceptance/challenging of ancient authorities in the scientific field. This also led scholars to deny any progress in the past and deemed the middle ages as the Dark Ages
Leonardo Da Vinci was a jack of all trades in the Renaissance and serves as a prime example of a rekindling in learning and understanding. Leonardo did not accept the authority of ancient scholars and places an emphasis on experimentation. He stated that we must observe and experience nature directly, and not rely on the authority of the ancient philosophers. Experimentation was the only way he believed could …show more content…
The objective of mechanical philosophers is to mathematically quantify the laws for motion of matter. Development of new instruments such as the telescope, microscope, barometer, and thermometer also allowed scientists to discover laws of nature that had eluded earlier scientists. All of this led to a continuous increase in scientific experimentation. Galileo believed in the quantification of science and emphasized that natural philosophy can never answer the questions of reality with certainty. He believed that mathematics provided the mind with the certainty it seeks. His inclined plane experiments showed that a body accelerated uniformly as it rolled down the plane and that the absence of external forces would allow falling bodies to reach the ground at the same time. He was able to develop laws for calculating the final velocity and distance of a falling body by using his pulse, a sandglass, and the experiment. This experiment became crucial to developing the laws of inertia and answering the anti-Copernican argument that Earth rotating and revolving through space would leave birds behind. Galileo also dealt a hand in astronomy that would challenge the geocentric model of the universe; his discoveries such as the phases of Venus and seasonal variation of sunspots added to the confirmation …show more content…
The study of light became broader with law of refraction, calculation of its speed, and composition. Willibrord Snell and Rene Descartes independently discovered and quantified the law of refraction that proved to serve a significant practicality in constructing refracting telescopes. Several scientists attempted to calculate the speed of light such as Galileo, Cassini, and Bradley; each began to formulate their own methods of measurement resulting in different equations and calculations. Finally, Newton’s prism experiment separated and combined white light by refraction that demonstrated it consisted of seven colors. The prism, newton explained, separated the colors but did not produce them as earlier examiners such as Hooke and Descartes believed. Heat as the mechanical theory states, is produced by matter in motion and the production of thermometers assisted in measuring it. Early thermometers proved to have no freezing or boiling reference points such Galileo’s air thermometer or Newton’s mercury scale. Only after Fahrenheit’s and Celsius’s scale did scientists now have fixed points of reference on a thermometer in order to clarify the difference between quantity of heat and temperature such as Amontons observation of expanded gases when heated. Early observers knew that the speed of light was faster than that of sound. Mersenne,