Leonardo da Vinci noted link between gravity and acceleration centuries before Einstein
![](https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/f83a7ff8-4e85-47a3-b4df-6a814e29c5d4.png)
![Leonardo noted link between gravity and acceleration before Newton](https://forkk.me/pictrs/image/a51eeb9f-60b7-491f-a322-b685893ea97d.jpeg?format=jpg&thumbnail=256)
arstechnica.com
Engineers re-created one of Leonardo's experiments with a modern apparatus and found he produced a value for the gravitational constant, G, to around 97 percent accuracy. What makes this finding even more astonishing is that Leonardo achieved this without a means of accurate timekeeping and without the benefit of calculus, which Newton invented only around 150 years after Leonardo's death.
What a cool read. I wonder how much knowledge he may have acquired that he was unable to pass on to the next generation because there was simply too much. Seems like his notebooks were a bit inscrutable.