ARCHIMEDES (287-212 B.C)

By : iriana barajas

Background information

Archimedes grew up in the Greek city-state of Syracuse on the island of Sicily.

Lived in syracuse most of his life except when he went to school in alexandria

His father was an astronomer named Phidias. Its unknown if he was marri or had any children He died when he was being sacked by a Roman army. He was killed by a roman soldier who did not know who

he was.

Education

Archimedes had a good education as a boy Some of the subjects that he studied as a boy were

poetry, politics, astronomy, mathematics, music, art, and military tactics.

When Archimedes was in his teens he sailed to Egypt to study in Alexandria.

There he went to a famous school of mathematics that had been found by Euclid.

His teacher Conon of Samos was one of the greatest influences he had in his life

He taught him many things about life and science

Contributions

Known as the father of geometry because of his many contributions to mathematics

it was said that his contribution was the creation of calculus These contributions are all a part of Archimedes love for

creation and love for mathematics these findings prove Archimedes to be ahead of his time by

many centuries. Created the volume of a sphere to the volume of a cylinder

ratio. Archimedes also is thought to be the creator of integral calculus Archimedes took a circle, and bisected a hexagon, until he

couldnt bisect anymore, and inscribed a circle inside the hexagon

he noticed if he increased the number of sides he increased the accuracy of PI.

Inventions

The first of Archimedes' inventions was called the Archimedean screw.

He invented the screw because he saw how hard it was for the Egyptians to carry water buckets around their whole fields.

The screw was like a hand pump that was used to spray water directly from the Nile onto the fields

Acomplishments

Archimedes key accomplishments in his lifetime were his contributions to calculus, Archimedes Principal, designs of machines for Syracuse, lever and pulley designs, Mirror systems for defense of Syracuse, and the Archimedes screw. 

Another Accomplishment of Archimedes was the discovery of the Law of Buoyancy (Archimedes Principal).  

the law of hydrostatics is, FB=ρfluid g VD

Archimedes is said to have designed most of the defensive mechanisms that Syracuse used to defend off the Roman Empire during the Punic wars

Findings

His findings were found by his interest in the area underneath the curve of a parabola. 

He took a rectangular segment under it, and found the separate areas of the rectangles and added them together. 

Today this is what we call an Integral.  This finding was the first step which led to the formation

of Integral Calculus Archimedes found that a cylinder can hold a sphere and

the volume of the largest sphere will always be 2:3 of the cylinder in which its contained.

  Archimedes felt so strongly about this finding, he had his last wish fulfilled on his death in which case he had them scribe a sphere with the ratio of 2:3 scribed on his tomb

Death

While the Roman Empire finally penetrated Syracuse in the second Punic war, Archimedes layed on the ground drawing circle like patterns

Then a Roman soldier entered his residence and Archimedes only words to this soldier was Dont disturb my circles. 

Despite the soldiers orders to not harm Archimedes (due to his potential of helping the Romans) the soldier thought Archimedes was crazy, and stabbed him with neglect to his orders.

  This shows Archimedes love for mathematics, and diligence for working these numbers. 

His confidence is clearly why we today have Integral Calculus, an understanding of buoyancy, levers and pulleys, and many other scientific creations that are said to lead off of Archimedes findings.

Sources

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b2archimedes_p1ab.htm

http://engineering.union.edu/SeniorProjects/2004.ME/donovam2/stuff/backarch.htm

http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html