In 1965,
when digging up the ground
for the foundation work of a hotel,
an abandoned tombstone was discovered.
Archimedes’ Tombstone
212 BC
Siracusa (Sicily), a Roman colony
There was an old man drawing
something on the ground.
He was lost in thought.
Just at that time,
a Roman soldier
walked across his drawing.
“Don’t tread on my circle!”
“What?
How dare you challenge me!”
“Step aside!
You’re ruining my figures!”
The soldier was so incensed that
he killed the old man by a single sword.
Roman commander Marcellus
found out about Archimedes’ death too late.
“Whom do you think you killed?
He’s Archimedes, a person whom I respect
despite the fact that he is our enemy!"
Archimedes
(287 BC-212 BC)
A great mathematician
and physicist of ancient Greek
The buoyancy discovered by accident
during a bath: “Archimedes’ principle”
He worked on circular constant,
parabolas, levers, and so on.
He also invented the screw pump,
the catapult, the crane, and the like.
However,
above all of his discoveries
and inventions,
it was his studies on “geometric shapes”
that he was most proud of.
“There is nothing
more beautiful than this.
When I die, please engrave
this discovery on my tombstone.”
So,
lamenting for the regrettable
death of Archimedes,
Marcellus engraved his tombstone
with the discovery, as he had wished.
“The relationship between the volumes
of a cone, a sphere, and a cylinder”
What is the relation between the volume
of a cone, a sphere and a cylinder?
In this picture,
the heights of a cylinder and a cone are
equal to the diameter of a sphere,
so h=2r.
Cone volume = 1/3 x base area x height
Sphere volume =
Cylinder volume = base area x height
Volume ratio of cone : sphere : cylinder =
Until the very moment of death,
Archimedes devoted himself
to mathematical research.
There remain the figures
on his tombstone.
In the distant future,
what will we leave behind?
