When you doodle, you're probably drawing something like a square that magically turns into a 3D cube or your boss with devil horns. When Leonardo da Vinci was doodling, he was figuring out some of the fundamental laws of physics.

涂鸦的时候你可能会随手画个正方形，加几笔变成一个正方体或是恶搞下老板的头像，将其画成是带着角的恶魔。与你不同，达芬奇在涂鸦的时候悟出了物理学的基本原理。

In a new paper, Professor Ian M. Hutchings of the University of Cambridge argues that a sketch¹ from da Vinci's journals shows that the Renaissance-era polymath was already working out his own ideas about the concepts of friction² years earlier than previously³ thought.

剑桥大学伊恩·哈钦斯教授在自己的论文中指出，达芬奇文稿中的一张涂鸦显示这位文艺复兴时期的多面手在当时就已经想明白了物理学的基本原理，比我们认为的时间要早数年。

Hutchings argues that the sketches⁴, which had previously been seen as inconsequential, were the first known place that da Vinci began to work out his theory of friction (or "tribology"). Da Vinci is known to have performed some of the first scientific work in figuring out friction, but when he began has remains⁵ a mystery.

哈钦斯表示，这些手稿之前并未受到重视，但其实正是这些涂鸦手稿才是达芬奇发现摩擦力的“起点”。众所周知，达芬奇是提出摩擦力科学理论的第一人，但是提出该理论的具体时间却一直是个未解之谜。

The page in question is from 1493 and is currently held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The sketch is done in da Vinci's "mirror writing" style, done from right to left. When first examined by a director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in the 1920s, the director dismissed the notations⁶ as "irrelevant⁷ notes and diagrams in red chalk."

上文提到的这份手稿来自1493年，现存于伦敦的维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆。这份涂鸦延续达芬奇一贯“镜像书写”的风格，以从右到左的格式呈现。20世纪20年代，当其第一次出现在维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆，当时的馆长将其判定为“无甚关联的笔记和图画，用红色墨水书写”.

But Hutchings argues that the sketch actually shows blocks on the ground being pulled by a weight attached to a pulley—the same type of experiment you might do today in a high school physics class.

但是哈钦斯却认为，在这张草图中，放置在地上的数个方块由配有滑轮装置砝码拖动--这和高中物理课上做的实验类型简直如出一辙。

The sketches and text show Leonardo understood the fundamentals of friction in 1493, said Professor Hutchings in an article put out by the University of Cambridge. "He knew that the force of friction acting⁸ between two sliding surfaces is proportional to the load pressing the surfaces together and that friction is independent of the apparent area of contact between the two surfaces. These are the 'laws of friction' that we nowadays usually credit to a French scientist, Guillaume Amontons, working two hundred years later."

在由剑桥大学发表的一篇论文中，哈钦斯教授写到：“草图和文字批注说明早在1493年达芬奇就已经想清楚了关于摩擦力的基本原理，他清楚两个平面之间的摩擦力是与作用于其本身的作用力成正比，和两个物体之间的接触面积无关。而我们现在普遍认可的‘库伦摩擦定律'（由法国物理学家库伦·阿蒙特提出）比达芬奇晚了整整两百年。

Da Vinici, well-known for his many mechanical sketches and experiments, was fascinated by the laws governing how exactly physical objects moved. "Leonardo's sketches and notes were undoubtedly⁹ based on experiments, probably with lubricated contacts," said Hutchings. "He appreciated that friction depends on the nature of surfaces and the state of lubrication and his use and understanding of the ratios between frictional force and weight was much more nuanced than many have suggested."

达芬奇的机械图和实验很出名，他对物体的运动规律很感兴趣。哈钦斯说道：“很显然，达芬奇的草图不是随便画画，是有实验基础的，很可能是用了润滑过的接触面。他意识到物体之间摩擦力的大小取决于接触面的材质，以及粗糙程度。达芬奇对于摩擦力和作用力之间的比例关系，不管是在实验中的测试还是考量都远比我们想象的要细致的多”

Still, while the sketches show a glimpse into the mind of a genius, they had little to do with the actual systemic theory of friction that was developed by the French scientist Guillaume Amontons nearly 200 years later. If only someone had looked at da Vinci's doodles a little closer.

虽然从这些涂鸦中我们得以一窥这位天才的超前观念但是它们和两百年后法国物理学家所提出的系统化的摩擦定律还有很大差距。除非有人能够仔细加以研究。