Archimedes

Greek Mathematician and Inventor 287 B.C.E.–212 B.C.E.

Archimedes was the greatest mathematician of the ancient world and one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He was born in the Greek city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. As a young man, Archimedes studied with successors of Euclid at Alexandria, Egypt. He returned to Syracuse after his studies and spent the rest of his life there.

Archimedes is famous for his practical applications of mathematics. During his time in Egypt, Archimedes invented a device now known as the Archimedean screw. This device is still employed in many parts of the world to pump water for irrigation. A short time later, he invented the double pulley, which was used by merchants to haul boats out of water. Archimedes also expanded the principles of the common lever.

In his lifetime, Archimedes was best known for his war machines. Some commentaries describe his huge catapults that could hurl enormous rocks great distances. Another of Archimedes' war machines could snatch ships out of the water and crush them.

Archimedes also studied the center of gravity, or the balancing point of geometric shapes; the specific gravity of geometric solids; and what traditionally became known as Archimedes' Principle, used to determine the weight of a body immersed in a liquid.

Some of Archimedes' other discoveries include determining that the value of π is between and , showing that the surface of a sphere is four times the area of its great circle, and finding that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of its circumscribed (bounding) cylinder. In making these discoveries, Archimedes used integration, an early form of calculus. Some historians claim that if Archimedes had had access to modern mathematics notation, he could have invented the calculus nearly 2,000 years earlier than Sir Isaac Newton.

According to tradition, Archimedes discovered this first law of hydrostatics while trying to determine if a crown fabricated for King Hiero of Syracuse was solid gold or an alloy of gold and silver. While lowering himself into his bath, Archimedes observed that the water level rose. It struck him that the amount of water displaced equaled the immersed portion of his body. He was so over-come by this discovery that he immediately ran from his bath through the streets toward the royal palace shouting "Eureka!" (I have found it!).

Calculus.

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MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. University of St Andrews. <http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac .uk/~history/Mathematicians.html> ;.

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