10 revolutionary ideas of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci lived at the turn of the XV and XVI centuries, but it feels like he flew there from the future. Many of his discoveries, inventions and ideas are very difficult to explain otherwise. Nevertheless, there are a dozen basic ideas and concepts without which our world today would be different.

The Vitruvian man. Leonardo da Vinci developed his concept of an ideal physique based on the proportions proposed by the Roman architect and mechanic Vitruvius. The angry man depicted by da Vinci now has reason to rejoice: this is one of the most recognizable sketches in the world.

Geochronology. Most of da Vinci's contemporaries believed that the fossilized mollusks in the mountains were there because of the Great Flood. The Italian artist and inventor thought otherwise. It was he who first came up with the idea of the movement of tectonic plates.

A self-moving carriage. Of course, this is not a Ferrari, but for the da Vinci era, the design of this carriage was truly revolutionary. The wooden "car" moved due to the interaction of springs with wheels. In 2004, scientists in one of the museums of Florence created an exact replica of the cart and found that it really goes the way the inventor intended.

The perfect city. Da Vinci lived in Milan during the plague, but dreamed of a cleaner and more thoughtful city that he could be proud of. He left behind very detailed architectural drawings, in which even covered stables with a ventilation system are provided. Da Vinci proposed to build a two-level city, where the upper level would be intended for pedestrian and surface roads, and the lower level for tunnels and canals connected to the basements of houses, along which freight transport would move.

Helicopter. Modern scientists agree that this design hardly ever flew, but the helicopter concept invented by da Vinci is still one of the most famous. This thing was supposed to be operated by a team of four people. There is a version that the design of the helicopter was inspired by a children's toy in the form of a windmill, popular at the time of the inventor.

A machine gun. Being more a thinker and a scientist than a fighter, da Vinci still often thought about the concepts of weapons. For example, he proposed a more efficient gun design, which has three barrels instead of one.

A winged paraglider. Da Vinci's imagination was filled to the limit with ideas of flying machines, including several concepts of paragliders with flapping wings.

Rotating bridge. Being a fan of fast movement, da Vinci believed that his rotating bridge would be best used in military operations. According to the concept, a bridge made of lightweight but durable materials attached to a rope-roller system on wheels allowed the army to quickly turn around and collapse in the right place.

A diving suit. Da Vinci was also very passionate about the sea, and this inspired him to create concepts of devices for exploring the underwater world. His underwater suit was made of leather and connected to a reed breathing tube and a bell that floated on the surface of the water. The inventor even provided a bag for collecting urine.

Mirror writing. Was Leonardo's famous handwriting an attempt to avoid plagiarism, or did da Vinci write so as not to smear ink on paper with his hand? Anyway, he liked it: most of his recordings were made from right to left.