Archimedes Essay example -- Biographies Bio Biography

Archimedes was born in siege of Syracuse, Sicily, in 287 B.C. His father was Philas, an aristocratic astronomer. He was educated in Alexandria, Egypt where he met the Alexandrian scholars Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene. For much of his support, Archimedes kept a correspondence with these two scholars, update them on his most recent discoveries and proofs. Archimedes spent the major part of his life in Sicily, in and around Syracuse. He did not hold any public office but devoted his entire lifetime to search and experiment. Archimedes is credited with the invention of the compound pulley, the hydraulic screw, the burning mirror, and vast improvements do on the catapult. He calculated the exact value of pi, proved that the lot of a sphere is 2/3 that of the circumscribed cylinder, and defined the justness of the lever. Perhaps one of Archimedes most famous discoveries is the discovery of the hydrostatic ruler now called the Archimedes principle. There are thr ee different accounts of Archimedes death in 212 B.C. One of the most popular is that a Roman soldier came upon Archimedes bit he was drawing diagrams in sand during the Roman siege of Syracuse during the Second Punic War. As legend has it, Archimedes, so involved in his calculations, had not noticed the commotion around him he offended he intruder by saying, Do not disturb my diagrams. The soldier stabbed Archimedes by dint of the chest, killing what historians call one the Three Greatest Mathematicians.Archimedes wrote many books containing his propositions and proofs in front his death, but none were so famous as The Method Treating of robotlike Problems, or more simply known as The Method. This work is in addition widely known as the Archimedes Palimpsest. ... ..., Archimedes provides a proposition as to the attempt of this remarkable experiment. He sates that two solids of equal weight and equal size of it get out, when immersed in water, will displace the same amou nt of liquid. He as well as states that the two solids will come to rest just beneath the step to the fore of the water. Archimedes hypothesizes that any solid that is heavier than a fluid will sink to the nates of the fluid, but will be lighter than the fluid displaced, if weighed in the fluid.Archimedes was, in conclusion, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Without his contributions, the branch of math known as the calculus would likely not be complete, nor would there likely be as many advances in the fields of science and mechanics as we have today. One can hardly imagine what great treasures will be unlocked in the Palimpsest, or where those discoveries might lead.