Archimedes

Life of Archimedes: Archimedes, a mathematician who determined the exact value of pi, is also known for his strategic role in ancient war and the development of military techniques. First the Carthaginians, then the Romans besieged Syracuse, Sicily, the birthplace of Archimedes. While in the end Rome won and killed him (during the second Punic War, in 212), Archimedes put up a good, almost single-handed defense of his homeland. First he invented an engine that threw stones at the enemy, then he used glass to set the Roman ships on fire -- maybe. After he was killed, the Romans had him buried with honor.

Education of Archimedes: Archimedes probably traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, home of the famous library, to study mathematics with the successors of Euclid.

Some of Archimedes' Accomplishments: The name Archimedes is connected to a pumping device now known as a Archimedes Screw, which he may have seen in operation in Egypt. He described the principles behind the pulley, fulcrum and lever.

The word "eureka" comes from the story that when Archimedes figured out a way to determine whether the king (Hiero II of Syracuse), a possible relative, had been duped by measuring the buoyancy of the king's supposedly solid gold crown in water, he became very excited and exclaimed the Greek (Archimedes' native language) for "I have found it": Eureka.

The Archimedes Palimpsest: A medieval prayerbook contains at least 7 of Archimedes' treatises: Equilibrium of Planes, Spiral Lines, The Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, On Floating Bodies, The Method of Mechanical Theorems, and the Stomachion. The parchment still contains the writing, but a scribe re-used the material as a palimpsest. For more information, see The Archimedes Palimpsest and Archimedes Palimpsest.