By: Sebastian Lozano
Leonardo da vinci is considered “the ideal renaissance man” because he did many other things besides being an artist. He was a musician, mathematician, scientist, inventor, philosopher, writer, architect, and sculptor. In his other career as an inventor his sketches of his ideas were masterpieces by themselves. When writing notes to himself he wrote backwards so no one could copy and keep his ideas. The evidence of his incredible accomplishments are buried deep inside his many notebooks, where he drew thousands of sketches and ideas, covering all kinds of topics. Probably the most interesting and coolest drawing in Leonardo's notebooks are his inventions. Many of these drawings are remarkably similar to future inventions, and many wonder if he was able to see into the future. Some of his drawings for example were armored cars similar to a tank, multi-barreled missile launchers.. There are also sketches for items that are not war-related, such as a parachute, and mechanical saws and drills. What is the most amazing thing of all, though, were his amazing visions of flying machines. He was convinced that a machine could be built that would enable man to conquer the remarkable task of being in the air. Many of his flying inventions were similar to helicopters. Unfortunately, most of Leonardo's inventions remained on paper. This was partly because his plans were sometimes too crazy to try, like his plans for huge canals and underground traffic systems. The other reason was because during this time period, humans lacked any other source of power besides human strength and animal power. Maybe this is why Leonardo was so interested in water power; many of his drawings show water wheels that are something like windmills. Unfortunately all of the ideas stayed only on paper.