A centuries-old mathematics mystery hidden in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous anatomical drawing called the Vitruvian Man might be on the threshold of finally being solved by an unlikely individual – a dentist from London with a passion for puzzles and his job.
Indeed, dentist Rory Mac Sweeney seems to have provided some answers to da Vinci’s geometric method of a study of the ideal human form, partly influenced by Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who believed the human body has harmonious proportions, per a report by Phys on July 2.
How a dentist uncovered Vitruvian Man’s hidden clue
Notably, Mac Sweeney’s paper focuses on a hidden detail in the Vitruvian Man – an equilateral triangle between the man’s legs referenced in da Vinci’s notes for the drawing. According to his analysis, the shape corresponds to Bonwill’s triangle, an imaginary equilateral triangle in dental anatomy that defines the optimal performance of the human jaw.
As it happens, using the triangle in the artwork facilitated the creation of a ratio of 1.64 to 1.65 between the square’s side and the circle’s radius, very close to the special blueprint number of 1.633, present in nature’s most efficient structures.
In Mac Sweeney’s view, this is by no accident and indicates da Vinci understood perfectly the ideal design of the human body long before modern science. As he explained, “Leonardo’s geometric construction successfully encoded fundamental spatial relationships in human form, demonstrating the remarkable precision of his Renaissance vision of mathematical unity between the human figure and natural order.”
All things considered, this dentist’s discovery could bear significant implications for dental anatomy, prosthetic design, and craniofacial surgery, warranting further investigations into Renaissance art for scientific insights that have remained unsolved for hundreds of years.
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