Archimedes

Archimedes (287 BC- 212 BC)

When people discuss the achievements of the greatest mathematicians of all time, a name that always comes up is Archimedes. Archimedes was a Greek mathematician astronomer, philosopher, physicist and engineer. He had a reputation in his own time that very few other mathematicians of this period achieved. He is considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all. His nicknames were, "the wise one", "the master", and "the great geometer." He is credited with a number of important inventions, such as the pi, which is extremely important in mathematical calculations. Other theorems and inventions are attributed to him such as the Archimedes screw, compound pulleys and the lever.

Archimedes was probably born around 287 BC. Archimedes spent most of his life in Syracuse, the principal city-state in Sicily. Archimedes published his works as letters and correspondence with the other great mathematicians of his time, including the Alexandrian scholars Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Some of the works which have survived throughout time are the following: On plane equilibriums (two books), Quadrature of the Parabola, On the Sphere and Cylinder (two books), On Spirals, On Conoids and Spheroids,