Archimedes

=Archimedes= Archimedes was born in Syracuse of Sicily which was most the prosperous Sicilian settlement. (Nardo pg. 72-73) He was born on 287 B.C., and lived to 211 B.C. His father was Phidias, an astronomer. He was a great astronomer, inventor, physicist, medical engineer, and most of all a mathematician. His advancements in math were greater than anyone of his time. Also, his inventions of war machines were legendary against the Romans. (Crisp pg. 79+91) Archimedes studied in Alexandria, Egypt. Then, the chief center of Greek learning. He studied the ways of Euclid, a great mathematician. This influenced Archimedes and advanced him to become one of the greatest mathematician to ever live.(All from: "Archimedes" pg. 605)

Archimedes made many discoveries in math and geometry. First of all, it is Archimedes who discovered that every object has a center of gravity. Also, by advancing the method of exhaustion and determining the area of figures bounded by curved lines, he formed a branch of math we now know as Calculus. Along with that, Archimedes came up with more accurate estimations of Pi. He showed that Pi is more than 3 10/71, but less than 3 1/7. (Nardo pg 72) This discovery advanced the understanding of Pi to mathematicians around the world. Even more impressively, Archimedes developed a system that expressed large numbers in a smaller, simpler way. This discovery led to Scientific Notation, a commonly used system in math.("Archimedes" pg 605) Finally, Archimedes developed how to find the volume of an object. Archimedes was given a job from King Hieros. The King was given a gold crown. The King asked Archimedes, being the smartest man in Syracuse, to figure out whether the goldsmith had cheated and made the crown with some other materials and not all gold. While taking a bath, Archimedes made a discovery. He realized that when he went into the water, the water level raised. He figured out that the displaced water is the volume of the object. By putting the crown in water, and measuring the water displaced, and measuring the water displaced of pure gold, Archimedes found that the crown was not all gold, and the goldsmith had cheated. This all went into Archimedes' method of integration allowing us to find areas, volumes, and surface areas.("Archimedes" pg. 605)

When Archimedes figured out the volume while in the bath tub, he screamed "Eureka!" Meaning "I've got it!" ("Archimedes" pg. 606)

Archimedes was a great inventor of many war machines. During the Ramn siege of Syracuse, Archimedes' inventions enabled the Syracusians to hold the Romans off. Archimedes created a system of mirrors that reflected off the sun into the Roman ships and burned them, keeping the Romans off the shore of Syracuse. This system was a genius idea, and was major in the battle. Also, Archimedes created the greatest war machine of his time, the catapult.(Hunt pg 88) Along with the catapult, Archimedes created a catapult like machine but instead, this device fired six foot long arrows like a machine gun. (Hunt pg 88) Finally, the last major war machine Archimedes invented was the Archimedes claw. This machine lifted the Roman ships out of the water straying them and helping the Syracusians. All of these war machines were extremely important in the battles with the Romans, and revolutionized War for the future. (Crisp pg. 38)

The Syracusians fired stones from the catapult that was created by Archimedes, destroying many of the Roman ships.

This is the catapult-like device that fired arrows rapidly like a machine gun.



This is the Archimedes claw which acted like a crane and lifted the Roman ships out of the water and completely destroyed them.

Another great movement of Archimedes is when he proved the law of lever. He was the first scientist to to explain the forces of leverage. When Archimedes solved and proved this law of lever, it enabled him to invent the compound pulley and use the lever and pulley system. By solving and inventing the pulley system, Archimedes now found a way to easily move great weights. To prove this to the King, Archimedes used his created system of pulleys and moved a ship fully loaded with passengers and freight with leverage. ("Archimedes" pg. 606)

Archimedes discovered many laws of hydrostatics, a branch of physics. This system dealt with liquids at rest. Archimedes was very interested in the concept of objects in fluids. Because of this, Archimedes described buoyancy which led to Archimedes creating the Archimedes principle. The Archimedes principle relates buoyancy to displacement. (Hunt pg 88)




 * If the weight of the water displaced is less than the weight of the object, the object will sink
 * Otherwise the object will float, with the weight of the water displaced equal to the weight of the object. ("Archimedes' Principle")

Archimedes also invented a major tool that irrigated the Nile Valley. This machine was called the Archimedes screw. This device drained and irrigated the Nile Valley, and amazingly, it is still used today. ("Archimedes" pg. 606) (Hunt pg 34) This machine was completely revolutionary in the sense that it irrigated the Nile Valley and is still used today.

In conclusion, Archimedes is a huge impact on the modern day world. If it was not from him then we would basically living like caveman. He did so much accomplishments in his life. His inventions are innumerable as well as revolutionary. For example, he was the main one who advanced math, geometry and many more subjects by solving formulas and creating principles. Every one of hios inventions are vital to the modern day world. The screw is still used today to irrigate areas. Hence, it made the irrigation system much easier and which it does not have any or little harm to pollute the water. Also, the catapult did a huge impact also in many wars years ago. However, we do not use it today, it still gave us many victories against our adversaries. Every invention Archimedes had was revolutionary and scholarly. In every way, Archimedes was one of the most intellectual people of his time.

Watch this short video about Archimedes and some thrilling stories in his life time and also hear a brief life summary in this same video.

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Works Cited

Calinger, Ronald. "Archimedes." //World Book//. A. 1. Chicago: World Book Incorporation, 2006. Print.

Crisp, Peter. //E Guides Ancient Greece//. Great Britian: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2006. pg. 79, 91, 93. Print.

Nardo, Don. //Ancient Greece//. SAn Diego: Lucent Books Incorporation, 1994. pg 66, 72-73. Print.

Hunt, Norman. //Living in Ancient Greece//. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2009. pg 34, 88. Print.

Carroll, Bradley. "Archimedes' Principle." //Archimedes//. WSU Physics Department Homepage., Tuesday, April 28, 2009. Web. 26 Mar 2012. .