With this design, when assembled, the leaf spring apparatus can achieve greater curvature and thus more effective propellant power. When constructing these leaf springs, it is imperative that, as the layers are stacked, their length decreases linearly to improve the density of material in the beam’s center, making the edges of the leaf spring more flexible. Arguably the most imperative aspect to the functionality of da Vinci’s catapult is the leaf spring system which is a pliable, flexible beam constructed though the layered stacking of sheets of metal or laminated wood. Regarding the motion of the launch arm, the systems were said to have increased rotational velocity and an optimization of angular momentum using bending leaf spring sections which would provide an overexerted physical force upon the release of the systems activation mechanism. Da Vinci’s new designs distinguishably improved the preceding catapults by incorporating a rotating drum rather than a bow and draw-string. Da Vinci is known to have developed two designs, the single and double arm system, for his ideal catapult, each of which utilized what is referred to as the leaf-spring system to optimize the weapon’s accuracy and power. Thus, after settling in Milan and working as a Renaissance defense contractor under his patron, Il Moro, da Vinci worked diligently in drafting mechanical military and designs that explored his idealized properties of complex technical processes, which included the catapult.

By essentially deriving and comprehending Newton’s First Law of motion, with his exception being his ignorance regarding the properties of gravity, da Vinci was able to utilize his preliminary knowledge of torque, tension forces, and angular motion to reimagine and theoretically explore an improved and ideal catapult design.īy the Renaissance era, catapults had already established themselves as one of the most valued weapons of the Eastern Hemisphere, and although gunpowder had become a new staple of warfare mechanics, da Vinci understood that this new substance was not completely reliable during his time and led him to attempt to innovatively explore his studies of motion while proposing innovative and improved designs for the previously created catapult.

Within his investigations of motion, he was noted for investigating the frictional and angular properties of what Aristotle had once coined as “simple machines,” such as inclined planes, levers, screws, pulleys, axels, and wheels, but was notably distinct in further attempting to improve complex machines with his new understandings of the principles of motion. Believing that both machines and humans were systems designated to move, da Vinci experimentally evaluated physical phenomena and visually depicted his theoretical models within his prized and unpublished, Codex Atlanticus, the principal manuscript collections that pertain to his designed machines and mechanisms. As such, in specifically analyzing the mechanical properties of systems and the universal laws of motion, leading Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, sought to investigate his fascination with motion by exploring the principle functionalities and fundamental qualities of moving apparatuses. Within the time of the Renaissance, significant revolutionary developments in the applications, properties, and laws of universal sciences were sought and attempted to be explained.

Da vinci catapult