Pratica di Shadowing: Leonardo da Vinci’s GENIUS Inventions - Impara a parlare inglese con YouTube
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You are attending a festival in Milan.
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You are attending a festival in Milan.
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The year is 1495.
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In front of you, you see a knight sitting on a chair.
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Suddenly, he stands up, raises his arm and waves at you.
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Then he opens his visor.
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To your surprise, there's no human inside.
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It's virtually a robot, more than 400 years before the first humanoid robot was made. But how?
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Behind the invention was none other than Leonardo da Vinci.
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And in this video, we take a closer look at his most incredible inventions,
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and ask the question, would they actually work in real life?
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We'll see how he envisioned the first ever diving suit,
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a military tank, and of course,
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how he made the mechanical knight.
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But first, let's take a look at how Leonardo imagined humans could fly.
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Leonardo was really fascinated by the idea of flight,
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and even though it took hundreds of years after Leonardo's death for humans to finally achieve it,
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he was surprisingly close in the late 15th century.
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Take this design as an example.
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It's essentially an early version of the helicopter.
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It consisted of a linen sail arranged around a wooden mast,
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resembling a giant screw.
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He also added four bars to be able to rotate the mast.
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By turning it, Leonardo believed the screw would push against the air in the same way a screw drives into wood,
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creating lift and allowing the machine to rise into the sky.
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As with most of his inventions,
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Leonardo never built the aerial screw,
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but his vision for it would be something like this.
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Leonardo would have four people standing on a central platform,
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operating the machine to create enough rotation to finally achieve lift.
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Some people believe Leonardo made the aerial screw to actually make humans fly,
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while others claim that it was designed for theatrical purposes only.
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However, experts agree on one thing,
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Leonardo's helicopter would not have been able to take off.
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But in 2019, at the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death,
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scientists at the University of Maryland set out with one goal,
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make Leonardo's design work for actual flight.
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The experiment included detailed descriptions of the changes needed to make Leonardo's helicopter actually take off.
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Instead of one rotary propeller,
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they redesigned it to have four propellers.
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This would make the aircraft more balanced and easier to control.
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With a few other modifications to the aerial screw itself,
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and switching out manpower for an electric engine,
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they made a real-life miniature of the machine.
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It was a drone, using Leonardo's theory to hopefully achieve lift-off.
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But would it work?
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The drone lifted into the air.
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Leonardo's vision was finally flying,
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500 years after his death.
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With Leonardo's original design, he would likely never be able to fly,
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but with this next invention, he actually might have.
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And one person even took it to the ultimate test.
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But first, let me tell you about the browser I've been using for a while now,
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and why you might want to try Opera as well.
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During my research on Leonardo's inventions, I used split-screen.
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It makes browsing and writing at the same time super easy.
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I just dragged one tab next to another to enable it.
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That way I can research on one side while writing on the other.
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And thanks to the video pop-out feature,
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I can detach the videos I watch,
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so it can follow me around even outside of the browser.
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It's perfect for watching tutorials or documentaries while working.
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Opera also has tab islands,
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which let me group related tabs together.
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This is helpful when doing research because it lets me keep relevant sources in multiple islands.
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And when I need more space, I can collapse them.
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It's by far the cleanest browsing experience for deep research.
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It's also quick and easy to customize the browser,
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making Opera personal and fun to use.
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I love using the Mirage theme when writing darker stories,
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and Midsummer when I'm in a creative mood.
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If you want to try opera,
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use the link in the description.
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Now let's get back to Leonardo's next invention.
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For ages, humans have dreamt of defying gravity.
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Some have been successful, like André-Jacques Garnarin,
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the Frenchman who performed the first ever successful parachute jump in 1797.
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Others were not so successful,
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like Franz Reichelt, who tried to show off his homemade flying suit by jumping from the Eiffel Tower in 1912.
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The results?
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Well, let's say I can't show it here on YouTube.
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But more than 400 years before that,
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Leonardo da Vinci designed what's believed to be one of the first concepts of a parachute ever to be made.
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The design was nothing like the modern parachutes we know today.
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Leonardo imagined a square frame made from solid wood.
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Around it, he wrapped a sealed linen cloth,
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making sure the only opening would be at the bottom, towards the frame.
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In the air, the cloth would be filled with air,
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making a pyramid shape, hopefully capable of slowing the descent.
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Leonardo wrote in his notes,
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If a man has a tent made of linen,
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of which the openings have all been stopped up,
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and it would be twelve braccia across and twelve in depth,
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he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury.
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The parachute's simple shape and heavy weight made many experts doubt its ability to fly,
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but British skydiver Adrian Nicholas believed the 500-year-old design could work and he was going to put it to the test.
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Instead of using modern, lighter materials,
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Nicholas insisted on using materials true to the time.
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Ignoring warnings that it would never work,
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he built the wooden frame and mounted the linen and ropes,
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all based on Leonardo's sketch from 1485.
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The total weight was now 84 kilograms,
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around 10 times the weight of a modern parachute.
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The experiment was controversial, but Nicolas believed in Leonardo.
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In fact, he was willing to risk his life that it would work.
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Secured to the bottom of the parachute,
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Nicolas was lifted 10,000 feet into the air by a hot air balloon.
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Now it was the moment of truth.
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Leonardo da Vinci's idea work?
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The balloon descended to fill the parachute with air.
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Then they released Nicholas.
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Mr. Da Vinci, maybe you were right!
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Luckily it worked.
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Nicholas was enjoying the view for about five minutes before he had to disengage the parachute.
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Due to the heavy wooden frame,
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it was safer for Nicholas to land using modern equipment.
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When interviewed about the stunt,
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Nicholas said, "...it took one of the greatest minds who ever lived to design it,
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but it took 500 years to find a man with a brain small enough to actually go and fly it."
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Leonardo was obsessed with humans experiencing the skies,
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but he also imagined how we could explore life underwater.
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First, let's take a closer look at his vision of warfare on land in the 15th century.
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Leonardo didn't really care much for wealth and money,
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but he still needed funding for his ideas.
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When he left Florence and moved to Milan in 1492,
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he was looking for a stable yet prestigious job.
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That's when he pitched his skills to the Duke of Milan in a now famous job application letter.
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After writing in detail about his ideas on warfare,
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he wrote, almost as a footnote,
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that he could also paint better than anyone else.
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He got the job, and between 1492 and 1499,
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Leonardo made several designs for advanced war equipment.
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The problem, however, was that his inventions were so advanced they would never be realized in his lifetime.
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Let's start off with one of his most futuristic visions, the military tank.
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Leonardo da Vinci's tank was designed for eight people, stationed across two floors.
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The roof was specifically designed to be sloped at a 30 degree angle,
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a strategic choice to make it more likely for enemy attacks to bounce off the armor.
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In his drawings, the tank was armed with heavyweight cannons all around.
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Underneath the tank, four wheels would help the vehicle move.
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The wheels were powered by gears and connected to a handle,
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allowing the crew inside to operate the vehicle.
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However, the drawing included a critical error.
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Leonardo's design of the gears would result in the wheels turning in opposite directions,
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effectively making the tank unable to move.
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The mistake would have been easy to fix for an experienced engineer like Leonardo,
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but this error has experts divided.
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His notebook included far more complicated gear construction than this one.
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That's why some experts think he intentionally added mistakes to his designs to protect them from misuse.
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Others argue that it might just have been a result of his mirrored writing,
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or a casual error that he didn't care to correct.
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Either way, with the weight of the cannons,
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Leonardo's tank was too heavy to be powered by humans alone,
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and it was never constructed or used in real combat.
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But this next invention would have been much more plausible and potentially deadly to its opponents.
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The year is 1490.
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You're a soldier standing in the battlefield,
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ready to fight for your life.
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In the distance, over a hill,
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you hear a loud creaking noise.
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Gradually, a dark silhouette is getting more and more visible over the horizon.
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You can't figure out what it is, but it's huge.
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It turns out your opponent has brought with them a giant crossbow,
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measuring an incredible 24 meters in width and 22 meters in length.
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They aim the frightening weapon at you and fire.
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The crossbow was designed to be horrifying to the enemy.
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Mounted on six wheels, it allegedly had to be operated by over a dozen people.
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But again, Leonardo's vision would never come to life.
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The military most likely deemed the weapon too expensive and too high maintenance to actually construct.
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But if ever created, it would arguably serve its main purpose,
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to be incredibly intimidating and a show of force.
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Moving on from the battles on land to the battles at sea,
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let's take a look at how Leonardo designed the first diving suit.
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After France's seizure of Milan in 1499,
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Leonardo saw no other option than to look for work elsewhere.
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Venice was a rich city nearby,
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under threat by the Turkish.
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Leonardo saw this as an opportunity to make a living by designing different types of military equipment for the Venetian army.
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In a meeting with the Council of Venice,
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Leonardo suggested to create an underwater army.
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To support this army, Leonardo designed the first diving suit in history.
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He argued that the city would not stand a chance against the Turkish on land,
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and proposed a solution to sink their ships while they were still at sea.
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The design featured a full-body waterproof leather suit.
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For the diver to be able to stay underwater for longer periods of time,
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Leonardo suggested an oversized snorkel.
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On the surface, a container made of cork would provide the diver with fresh oxygen.
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The cork was designed with two tubes,
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one for fresh air and one for used air.
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In 2002, Scott Cassel and Jackie Cozens set out to recreate the diving suit on mission by the BBC.
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And to their surprise, it actually worked.
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The diver was able to walk along the seabed while still getting fresh air from above.
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But just like the wheels of the military tank,
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it's believed Leonardo intentionally left small mistakes in the design.
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By moving the ventilation on the cork,
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the design would not only work as a simple snorkel,
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but also as an oxygen tank.
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With the ventilation further down,
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the container would create an air chamber.
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This would allow the diver to pull the cork down under the surface,
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fully hiding from enemy forces.
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The experiment showed that Leonardo's diving suit wasn't just theoretical.
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It could function, and in theory,
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it might have given Venice the world's first underwater soldiers.
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But how would the soldiers sabotage enemy forces underwater?
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Well one suggestion was to use an underwater drill.
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Leonardo designed a drilling device that could sink ships by drilling a hole into a vessel's planking below the waterline.
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Just imagine the faces of the Venetian council when Leonardo presented his vision for an underwater army.
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Moving on from Leonardo's military designs,
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we find a collection of incredible inventions using gears and wires.
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Through his paintings, Leonardo is famous for his advanced understanding of anatomy.
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He was able to paint the human body in ways few others could at the time.
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But his knowledge of anatomy did not only benefit his art,
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he also made incredible creations for theatres and events.
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With the use of gears,
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Leonardo da Vinci created almost life-like movements in his designs.
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But Leonardo understood that gears could do so much more than just imitate birds.
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That brings us back to the Mechanical Knight from 1495.
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In the middle of the ceremony,
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the mysterious knight has just revealed that it is not a human.
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Inside the helmet is only gears and wires,
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but Leonardo's mechanical knight could do more than just open its helmet.
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The knight was able to stand up,
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move his arms, turn his head and sit back down again.
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Some sources also claim the knight may have produced an automated drum roll.
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Unlike most of Leonardo's other sketches,
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the mechanical knight was likely built and demonstrated at a ceremony in 1495.
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The secret was in its construction.
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Leonardo's knight was built from wood,
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leather and metal and powered by a clever system of pulleys and cables.
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Movements of different limbs were linked together.
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When one arm moved up,
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the other moved down, creating a human-like behavior.
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But what inspired Leonardo to create the mechanical knight?
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The answer is quite sinister.
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A dark evening in Florence,
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Leonardo's assistant arrives carrying something heavy.
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With him, he has a body,
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most likely a diseased criminal.
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With occasional permission from the church,
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Leonardo would start to study human cadavers.
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And not only on the outside,
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he dissected the people, carefully taking note of every little detail he could find about the human body.
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Few people would ever want to work in the dissection rooms of this era.
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there was no way to preserve the bodies,
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which meant they began to rot within 48 hours.
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But the dissections gave Leonardo important knowledge.
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Some sources suggest that Leonardo's study on human anatomy inspired him to design the first mechanical machines.
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To figure out how he could recreate motion using levers and pulleys,
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Leonardo would compare human skeletons side by side with mechanical designs.
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By comparing bones to levers and muscles to pulleys,
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Leonardo created detailed drawings of a mechanical knight,
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a mechanical bird, and even a mechanical lion.
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By understanding the muscles and how the body was put together,
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he could create machines that gave an illusion of life.
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The mechanical knight has been reconstructed in 2002 for a BBC documentary.
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Robotic expert Mark Rocheim argued that Leonardo's robot could have been fully automated by using water and gravity,
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making the knight even more impressive.
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And according to the documentary,
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Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical knight directly inspired robotics used in NASA's space stations.
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If you found this video interesting,
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I think you'll love my video about the advanced tech of the Roman Empire.
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Please consider subscribing.
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Perché praticare il parlato con questo video?
Guardare e praticare il parlato con il video su Leonardo da Vinci e le sue invenzioni è un'opportunità unica per immergersi in un contesto ricco di storia e creatività. Utilizzando il metodo delle shadowspeak, puoi migliorare la tua pronuncia inglese e acquisire una maggiore fluidità. Ascoltare la narrazione delle invenzioni di da Vinci ti permette non solo di apprendere la lingua, ma anche di esplorare termini e concetti legati alla scienza e alla tecnologia. La pratica del parlato in questo modo ti aiuterà a sentirti più sicuro nelle conversazioni, rendendo l'apprendimento dell'inglese un'esperienza coinvolgente e produttiva.
Grammatica & Espressioni nel Contesto
Nel video, ci sono diverse strutture grammaticali e espressioni chiave che possono essere utilizzate per migliorare il tuo inglese. Ecco alcune di esse:
- Condizionali: "Se Leonardo avesse costruito il vascello aereo, probabilmente..." Questa struttura ti aiuta a esprimere situazioni ipotetiche.
- Frasi passive: “Le invenzioni sono state create da Leonardo.” Comprendere le frasi passive è fondamentale per arricchire il tuo vocabolario.
- Verbi in transizione: “La macchina potrebbe decollare.” Questa espressione è utile per discutere possibilità e probabilità.
- Domande retoriche: “Ma come sarebbe stato se?” Le domande retoriche stimolano la riflessione e l’interazione nella conversazione.
Trappole Comuni di Pronuncia
Durante l'ascolto del video, potresti imbaterti in alcune parole o frasi che possono essere difficili da pronunciare. Ecco alcune trappole comuni:
- "invenzioni": Presta attenzione alla pronuncia della "voce di fondo" che può alterare il modo in cui si articola la parola.
- "robot": La "o" può essere confusa con una "a" se non viene pronunciata correttamente.
- "migliorare": La tonicità della parola può variare; pratica la corretta enfasi per garantire chiarezza.
Utilizzando questi aspetti e praticando con il video, gli studenti possono migliorare la pronuncia inglese e imparare l'inglese con Youtube in modo più efficace. La tecnica dello shadowspeaks ti consente di ripetere immediatamente ciò che ascolti, aiutandoti a padroneggiare pronuncia e intonazione.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.
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