Vitruvian Man is useful for teaching students about structure, shape and proportion.
"Vitruvian Man" (sometimes called "Universal Man") is a pen, ink, metalpoint and watercolor drawing by Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived from 1471 to 1528. The picture is special and unique because it draws together the concepts of mathematics and physics with biology and anatomy. There are many theories about the parallels drawn, but most concede that Vitruvian Man was created to illustrate the importance of physics in our lives.
Proportion
The proportions of Vitruvian Man including height, length of hands, size of feet and leg lengths are in proportion. Da Vinci and Vitruvius, an ancient Roman thinker, claimed that the navel was the center of the body. According to Donald E. Simanek, a scientist at Lock Haven University, if we measure a person's height and the distance between the floor and the person's navel, it is possible to obtain a value close to the "golden ratio", which represents true biological proportions. However, it is worth noting that Da Vinci did not create Vitruvian Man to have exactly mathematical proportions.
Geometry
Geometry is represented in Vitruvian Man by the large circle and square. Vitruvian Man stands inside the two shapes, reaching out to touch the edges. As explained by researchers at Stanford University, Da Vinci claimed that "if you open the legs so as to reduce the stature by one-fourteenth and open and raise your arms so that your middle fingers touch the line through the top of the head, the center of the extremities of the outspread limbs will be the umbilicus and the space between the legs will make an equilateral triangle."
Gravity
The "center of gravity" of an object is a geometric property of that object. It is the average location of the weight of the object and can be used to describe the motion of the object through space in terms of the actual translation of that property, as scientists at NASA describe. Leonardo Da Vinci included the concept of gravity and center of mass in Vitruvian Man. Using the outer circle, he shows how the man's center of gravity would remain fixed in space if the circle began to rotate. He also implies that the man's gravitational center is midway along the central line between throat, umbilicus and legs.
"Squaring the Circle"
Da Vinci created Vitruvian Man to solve the geometrical problem "squaring the circle," as discussed by researchers at Sam Houston State University. The idea was to demonstrate that a square and circle of equal area can be created. Da Vinci's solution is more than 99.8 percent accurate, which is as high as possible for geometrical resolutions. He also showed how intricate mathematics and physics could be simplified -- his proof for squaring the circle involved the use of the drawing he made, a compass and a straight edge or common-day ruler.
