The first parachute had been imagined and sketched by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century. It’s hard to believe something as “modern” as a parachute could be invented over 500 years ago. Leonardo’s parachute design consists of sealed linen cloth held open by a pyramid of wooden poles, about seven metres long. Still, because his ideas were way ahead of his time, the technology was not able to sustain his ideas, thus nobody invented a practical parachute until 1783. In the year 2000, the man in the image above, successfully tested Leonardo da Vinci's original parachute design. Due to the invention of the parachute, less people die of airplane crashes. The parachute has also change some of our fighting styles, such as using air planes to fight instead of fighting on the ground.

Mathematical Contributions

Leonardo da Vinci's original parachute design