Archimedes

Mathematician, physicist, and inventor

Born: c. 287 b. c.e.; Syracuse, Sicily (now in Italy) Died: 212 b. c.e.; Syracuse, Sicily (now in Italy) Category: Mathematics; science and technology

Life Historians know more about Archimedes (ahr-kuh-MEED-eez) than any other ancient mathematician, although they remain unable to determine the chronology of his discoveries and writings. Archimedes spent most of his life in Syracuse, but he may have also studied with scholars in Alexandria. He certainly continued the development of Euclidean mathe-

Archimedes. (Library of Congress)

Matics by establishing numerous theorems in solid geometry.

Archimedes invented a water screw for irrigation and perhaps the compound pulley. He wrote the first proof of the law of the lever, that equal weights at equal distances from the fulcrum will balance. He also proved the basic principle of hydrostatics, that a solid immersed in a fluid is lighter than its true weight by the weight of the fluid displaced. The story that Archimedes discovered an important concept while bathing and ran naked through the streets crying, “Eureka!” (“I have found it!”), is believed to be no more than popular legend. Although his precise process is unknown, he did determine the volume of a gold crown (suspected to be partly silver) by measuring the amount of water that it displaced.

When the Roman army attacked Syracuse, Archimedes helped defend the city with missile launchers and cranes. One of many possibly fanciful stories about Archimedes relates that he was so focused on a geometrical diagram he had drawn in the dirt that he ignored an approaching Roman soldier, who killed the mathematician with a sword.

Influence The achievements of Archimedes were not widely known during antiquity. Byzantine and Arab mathematicians exploited his methods in the early Middle Ages. His texts were translated into Latin in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries c. e., making Archimedes the principal influence on European geometers. Finally, Archimedes’ skill with the mathematical technique known as the method of exhaustion was a precursor of the principles of integration.

Further Reading

Dijksterhuis, E. J. Archimedes. 2d ed. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Heath, Thomas L. The Works of Archimedes. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 2002. Stein, Sherman. Archimedes: What Did He Do Besides Cry “Eureka”?

Washington, D. C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1999. Tuplin, C. J., and T. E. Rihill. Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Amy Ackerberg-Hastings

See also: Science; Syracuse; Technology. 120