Archimedes

People have been aware of objects floating on water or sinking since before recorded history. It was not until Archimedes of Syracuse came along, that the theory of flotation and the buoyancy principle were defined. Archimedes was born at Syracuse on the island of Sicily in 287 BC. His father, Phidias, is thought to have been an astronomer who discovered the size and distances of the sun and moon. Archimedes might have been related to King Hieron the second, King Hieron definitely favored Archimedes as his first philosopher. As a young boy, Archimedes developed a life-long interest in the study of the heavens. As a teen he traveled to Egypt where he studied at the great Library of Alexandria, possibly under the followers of Euclid.

Archimedes is often described as being absentminded, self-absorbed, and somewhat eccentric. Despite these personal attributes, he was recognized in his own time as a genius, and is revered today as one of the greatest figures in the history of science and mathematics. It is not known if Archimedes did marry or if he had any kids, Archimedes' first love was always mathematics. He is also known today to have been an experimental physicist, legendary philosopher, artistic engineer and a wise inventor. He would often spend days so intently fixed on solving a problem that he neglected both food and himself to a point that his friends would carry him kicking and fighting to the bath. He often stooped to the ground to work mathematical problems by drawing figures in the dirt. He is even said to have carried a small wooden tray filled with sand, which he used to draw his figures and work on his mathematical problems. You might think of this tray as our modern day lap-top or another recording device. Of course, such a journal is not without its problems. A strong wind could blow away a brilliant proof, a bully could kick a theorem into your face, and should a cat wander into the tray, the outcome could be too disgusting to mention. It’s said that Archimedes had discovery buoyancy much earlier in history, but it was lost to a great gust of wind.

Archimedes discoveries are many, without him the modern day world wouldn’t be as mathematical advanced. One such discovery was his calculation of Pi, for his mathematical constant ј represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The word Pi pronounced as “pie” is the lowercase of the Greek letter to “p” from the Roman alphabet. Archimedes used geometric formulas outlined by Euclid, to make his computing areas and volumes by the method of exhaustion. His theory came two-thousand years before it was supposedly invented by Sir Isaac Newton and he fellow Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. That discovery was the near development of today’s Calculus used in mathematics, physics, and engineering today. Another discovery was the relationship between volume and surface of a sphere and its circumference cylinder. He discovered this with two spheres which he built himself, with some further calculation he proved a formula that is used in today’s On the Sphere and the Cylinder. Also, there is a legend that Archimedes made a discovery of buoyancy while in a bath tub. When he went for a bath, he found his principle (Archimedes Principal) which states an object put into a fluid will experience a buoyant force that is equal in magnitude to the force of gravity on the displaced fluid. In the legend, after making this discovery, it’s told that he was so excited he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting “Eureka, eureka (I have found it). Another legend has it that he used buoyancy to prove that King Hiero’s gold crown wasn’t pure gold. He took two equal weights of gold and silver and compared their weights when put into water. Next he compared the weights of the crown and a pure silver crown of identical dimensions when both were placed in water. Their differences were the answer, the King was fraud. These are only some of his many discoveries and legend that we know and use in our modern day living. We also have many of his works such as On the Sphere and Cylinder, Measurement of a Circle, On Conoids and Spheroids, On Spirals, On Plane Equilibriums(two books), Quadrature of the Parabola, The Sand Reckoner, On Floating Bodies(two books), and Stomachion(two manuscripts).

Archimedes was also well recognized for his mastery of simple machines. Though he appears to have considered machines as a lesser discipline to mathematics, he used them to serve his purposes when needed. The first example of his engineering ability came when King Hiero's ship could not be launched. Though usually modest, Archimedes is claimed to have said "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the world". The case of the king's ship was soon to prove he was correct. All the men in Syracuse had tried to launch the ship, but their combined strength and ingenuity had not been equal to the task.