Archimedes :: essays research papers

Archimedes (287-212 BC), preeminent Greekmathematician and inventor, who wrote important workson plane and whole geometry, arithmetic, and mechanics.Archimedes was born in siege of Syracuse, Sicily, and educated inAlexandria, Egypt. In pure mathematics he anticipatedm whatever of the discoveries of modern science, such as the built-in calculus, through his studies of the areas andvolumes of curved solid figures and the areas of planefigures. He also turn up that the volume of a sphere istwo-thirds the volume of a cylinder that circumscribes thesphere. In mechanics, Archimedes defined the principle ofthe lever and is credited with inventing the compoundpulley. During his stay in Egypt he invented the hydraulicscrew for raising water from a cut down to a higher level. He isbest known for discovering the law of hydrostatics, frequentlycalled Archimedes principle, which states that a bodyimmersed in fluid loses lading equal to the weight of theamount of fluid it displaces. This dis covery is said to havebeen made as Archimedes stepped into his bath andperceived the displaced water overflowing, and afterviewing that had ran outside into the streets sorescreaming "Eureka(I found it)" Archimedes spent themajor part of his feel in Sicily, in and around Syracuse. Hedid not hold any public office but devoted his entire lifetimeto research and experiment. During the Roman conquest ofSicily, however, he placed his gifts at the disposal of thestate, and several(prenominal) of his mechanical devices were employedin the defense of Syracuse. Among the war machinesattributed to him are the onager and-perhaps legendary-amirror system for focusing the suns rays on the invadersboats and igniting them. After the capture of Syracuseduring the Second Punic War, Archimedes was killed by a