Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek
mathematician, physicist, engineer,
inventor and astronomer. Although few
details of his life are known he is
regarded as one of the leading
scientists in classical antiquity.
Generally considered the greatest
mathematician of antiquity and one of
the greatest of all time, Archimedes
anticipated modern calculus and analysis
by applying concepts of infinitesimals and
the method of exhaustion to derive and
rigorously prove a range of geometrical
theorems including the area of a circle
the surface area and volume of the
sphere and the area under a parabola.
The most widely known anecdote about
Archimedes tells of how he invented a
method for determining the volume of an
object with an irregular shape.
According to Vitruvius a votive crown for a temple
had been made for King Hiero the second
of Syracuse who had supplied the pure gold to be used
and Archimedes was asked to determine
whether some silver had been
substituted by the dishonest goldsmith.
Archimedes had to solve the problem
without damaging the crown so he could not
melt it down into a regularly shaped
body in order to calculate its density.
While taking a bath he noticed that
the level of the water in the tub rose as he got in
and realized that this effect could be used
to determine the volume of the crown.
For practical purposes that water is incompressible
so the submerged crown could displace
an amount of water equal to its own volume.
By dividing the mass of the crown by the volume of the water displaced
the density of the crown could be obtained.
This density would be lower than that of gold
if cheaper and less-dense metals had been added
Archimedes then took to the streets
naked so excited by his discovery that
he had forgotten to dress, crying EUREKA!
The test was conducted successfully
proving that silver had indeed been
mixed in.
The claw of Archimedes is a weapon that he is said to have designed
in order to defend the city of Syracuse.
Also known as the "ship shaker", the claw
consisted of a crane-like arm from which
a large metal grappling hook was
suspended
When the claw was dropped onto an attacking ship
the arm would swing upwards, lifting the ship
out of the water and possibly sinking it.
There have been modern experiments to test the feasibility of the claw
and in 2005, the television documentary
entitled "Super Weapons of the Ancient World"
built a version of the claw and
concluded that it was a workable device.
While Archimedes did not invent the lever
he gave an explanation of the principle
involved
in his work "On the Equilibrium of Planes".
Earlier descriptions of the lever are found in the
Peripatetic school of the followers of Aristotle
and are sometimes attributed to Architus.
According to "Pappus of Alexandria"
Archimedes' work on levers caused him to remark
"Give me a place to stand on, and I
will move the Earth".
Plutarch describes how Archimedes
designed block and tackle pulley systems
allowing sailors to use the principle of leverage
to lift objects that would otherwise have been too heavy to move.
Archimedes has also been credited with
improving the power and accuracy of the
catapult,
and with inventing the odometer during the First Punic War.
the odometer was described as a cart with the gear mechanism
that dropped a ball into a container after each mile traveled.
