Leonardo’s Perpetual Motion Machines

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
6 replies · 7K views
dkotschessaa
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
763
Obviously they don't work, perpetually, but they're really cool anyway:

http://www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/mechanical-inventions/leonardo-perpetual-motion-machine/

perpetual-motion-leonardo-da-vinci-3a-300x225.jpg
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: fresh_42
Physics news on Phys.org
FYI, the site makes no claims for the machines to work, and simply sells them as art pieces.
 
Borek said:
Ban and lock in 3, 2, 1...
0.5, 0.25, 0.125, wait for it, wait for it...
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: fresh_42, Bystander and dkotschessaa
Leonardo decided against investigating perpetual motion any further after he wrote (in mirror writing) beside the designs – “for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction” (the machines will not work). That quote is also Isaac Newtons Third Law of Motion, 200 years before Newton was born!
Now, this is very interesting. Newton ascribed the discovery of the third law to his contemporaries in the Royal Society. He wasn't aware anyone had realized it or voiced it before them. That being the case, it is intriguing to see Leonardo had written it down as far back as the Renaissance. I am now curious to know if there's any record of it before Leonardo anywhere.
 
berkeman said:
0.5, 0.25, 0.125, wait for it, wait for it...
The very first thing that came to mind upon seeing this was Zeno's paradox. I wonder what sort of person this makes me...