Running head: da Vinci’s Proportions

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Fernando Osuna

Ms. Burnham

Statistics & Probability

11 December 2018

Leonardo da Vinci’s Proportions

Introduction

Leonardo da Vinci (born April 15, 1452- died May 2, 1519) was one of the most

influential people during the renaissance area, who embodied the name the “Renaissance

Man”. He was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer. His two most

famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He is also known for drawing the

proportion of the human body known as the Vitruvian Man. In Leonardo da Vinci proportions

he stated; Standing height is equal to the span of the outstretched arms, kneeling height is

three-fourths of the standing height, and that the length of the hand is one-ninth of the height.

We wanted to see if his proportions/ calculations of the human body are still accurate to this

day.

Method

The variables we were measuring were: our standing height, arms span, kneeling height,

and hand length. A measuring tape and a ruler were used in order to be able to make the body

measurements. We use the ruler in order to measure the length of our hand, we started

measuring from the the top of our wirst to the top of our middle finger. We then proceeded to
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measure our arm span, we took the measuring tape and we measured from the tip of one

middle finger to the other across our back. We then measured our standing height, we took off

our shoes and measure from the top of head to the floor. Finally, we got on our knees to be

able to measure our kneeling height. When measuring we wanted to be as accurate as possible

to produce the best data so when measuring, we rounded to the 10th centimeters. We then

created a scatter plot for our class where we put all the result of our variables.

Result:

With the data collected we were able to create a scatter plot that was representing our

measurements. However, we resulted in having three outliers in our graph as seen in figure 1

circled in red. We also noticed that one of the equations had a negative correlation of

determination seen in figure 1a. Meaning that we wouldn’t be able to have an accurate

representation of our residual points for that model. We then decided to create another scatter

plot without the outliers to see what effect they had on our regression line and variability. We

ultimately decided to use the scatter plot without the outliers due to giving us an accurate

representation of our data. When creating our models we said that the standing height would

be our X axis,our explanatory variable, and that the arm span (a), kneeling height(k), and hand

length(h) would be our Y axis,our response variables). However, for all these models we

decided to force the y intercept to be 0, due to the fact that if there's no height, there would be

no arm span, kneeling height or hand length.

The equation for the arms span was . The strength of the model for the arm span is

also strong due to the points not being too separated from each other as seen in figure 2. Also
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for every 1 cm increase in standing height there is a 1.005 cm increase in arm-span. For the

correlation of determination there's 82% of the arms span variability accounted,

which means most of the points can be explain by the relationship between the

armspan and standing height.

The equation used for the kneeling height was .The strength of the model for the

kneeling height is stronger than the arm span due to the points not being separated as much as

seen in figure 2. For every 1 cm increase in height there is an increase of exactly .075 cm in

kneeling height. In Addition, there is a 95% of the kneeling height variability accounted,

meaning that almost all the points can be explained by the relationship of kneeling height and

standing height.

The equation used for the hand length was . The strength of the model for the

hand length is as strong as the kneeling height due to the points not being too separated as

seen in figure 2. Also for every 1 cm increase in height, there is an increase of .1067 cm in

hand length. There’s 71% of the hand length variability accounted for. In addition a linear

model would be appropriate for all three models due to the residual points for each model not

having a specific pattern.

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Discussion: Our slope(​m​) shown in our models shows how accurate Leonardo da Vinci’s

proportion are. Leonardo da Vinci relationships were that kneeling height is three-fourths of

our height( or .75). Therefore if we take a look at figure 2a we can see that the slope for the

equation , ​m ​=.749 or .75 when rounded out making this statement true. Also da Vinci

relationships explains how standing height is equal to the span of the outstretched arms,

meaning that both height and arm span are the same and should equal to 1. Correspondingly,

looking at the slope for equation in figure 2a, we can see that ​m=​1.005, also making

this relationship true. Lastly, he mentions that the length of the hand is one-ninth of the height,

and if we look at the slope for in figure 2a we can see that ​m​=.1067, which is not

accurate but close enough to make the relationship true. What future researchers should

consider is being able to measure the proportions of the body as accurate as possible to get the

best result. They should also try to get a specific subset for this experiment, to prevent from

having a really low point in their scatter plot or any outlier. It's truly amazing how Leonardo

da Vinci’s proportions still stand true after many years.

Appendix:
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Scatter plot with outliers (figure 1)

Figure 1a
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Scatter plot with no outliers( figure 2)

(figure 2a)