so he is one of the greatest inventors
the world has ever known and now some of
his machines and ideas are on display
right here in the Dean it's happening
now at the Cranbrook institute of
science and it's called da Vinci
machines and robotics as in Leonardo da
Vinci correct right so joining us as
Cameron would thank you so much for
being here thank you for having me out
everything about Leonardo da Vinci just
sounds cool to me like he was like this
mysterious brilliant person just moving
through life he was all of those things
he is truly beyond most all of us would
ever think about everybody thinks him of
course is an artist but he was also an
engineer and inventor an autonomous a
vegan and a man about town and a man
about town yes and reputedly very very
handsome as well he was the complete
package and vegan don't you wish he had
a time machine I know right and vegan
about the exhibit this amazing model
here mm-hmm
so the exhibit really we do have
reproductions of his artwork but we're
focusing on his scientific achievements
of course being who we are so the
exhibition is from Italy and it features
a number of models recreating his works
many of his inventions were never
actually built he was more of a
conceptualist and they appeared in a
number of scientific writings that he
made but a few were made and this was
his attempt at a helicopter and it
actually in theory does work his idea
was you'd have four guys basically
running like guys on a gerbil cage to
create enough lift to get this thing off
the ground Wow
so the science is correct but humans
just can't generate the amount of
horsepower needed to actually get it to
work so it was a cute thing a great idea
and you know a couple hundred years
later it would have worked well the
brain behind it is what's fascinating to
me but you brought in something to
demonstrate something else that he did
yeah now in our exhibit we have a
hands-on area you can go crazy with the
things there and one of the things that
you can attempt to do that'll drive you
a little bit buggy is to write as
Leonardo da Vinci did he was left-handed
and he routinely at least on his
scientific writings wrote left-handed
backwards so you had to hold it up to a
mirror to read it so one of the things
you can do is
see if you can do what da Vinci did so
let's give it a shot Jason is like
challenge you to write your name
backwards and then we could hold it up
to the mirror backward and see if it
appears forward gonna try its same
thinking about this and it'll make you
feel any better I'm lousy at it
[Music]
my name is kinda easy I screwed it up
already I don't know if this work that's
a weird-looking a but that's an a thank
you now you don't necessarily have to
use your left hand we don't make you go
that far unless you happen to be a lefty
so if you hold it up there and I can't
even see there oh wow Jason so if you
did it right you see Jason Carr yeah but
I should have started with Jason first
you said I mean I see what you're after
there you a for effort though you did
your first and last no do you have a
little bit easier let's see how you do
you and Leonardo cute little things that
you can play around with in our hands-on
area very cool
oh gosh in terms of the hands-on area
you can make your own little parachute
guy that was another one of his
inventions that does actually work as a
working parachute and so I can build a
little one and we our engineers built
this cool little thing it goes up and
see if you can really take the law army
man that have the parachute much his
design was basically a cone or more
accurately a pyramid okay but it works
people have actually built full-size
ones and jumped out of low flying
airplanes and made it to the ground
that handsome fellow in years yes that
is him as an older gentleman he for his
day he lived to a reasonable age and
this is reputedly one of his
self-portraits so there's a little
matter right there on the chest thanks
for joining us today absolutely thanks
for having me out makes learning fun
indeed it's the da Vinci
and robotics exhibit now at the
Cranbrook Institute of Science until
January 13th thanks again