Leonardo’s rule of trees

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This sketch from one of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks illustrates his original “rule of trees,” which posited that the thickness of a limb before it branches is the same as the combined thicknesses of all the limbs after it branches. Leonardo was left-handed and wrote in mirror script from right to left, so this image has been flipped for viewing.*

Credit: Photo by Brian Enquist, from Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, via the British Library, currently unavailable online.