The cipher made possible the positioning of numbers, which in turn facilitated division and multiplication. Imagine trying to multiply or divide with Roman numerals … impossible! The Renaissance began with the new calculating facility introduced by the cipher. The cipher was not only an essential tool in the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton, but it also brought about Columbus’ revised concepts of terrestrial navigation. It went on to instrument the mechanical and leverage calculation capabilities of Leonardo; and in the art of ship design the cipher gave birth to structural and mechanical engineering, which made possible the intertensioning and compressioning calculations of the ribbed structural strength of a sailing vessel as well as that of its vast wind-energy-driven complex of compression and tension spars, sails, and rigging-replacing the trial-and-error guesswork that had previously been used in naval and land architecture. This capability in mathematical multiplication and division opened up a whole new field of safely anticipated structural engineering and navigation.