Archimedes
Archimedes is believed to have been born in 287 B.C. in Syracuse, Sicily, and died in 212 B.C. His father was Phidias, who was an astronomer. We would know more about his life if his biography, written by his friend Hercleide, had not been lost (Archimedes of Syracuse. groups). The information we have about Archimedes' life comes from the writings of Plutarch, Livy, and others, as well as from the prefaces of Archimedes' works. We know from the writings of Plutarch that he received part of his education at Euclid's School in Alexandria, Egypt. There he was taught internal calculus, which included the study of volume. Archimedes figured out that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a cylinder that circumscribes the sphere (Archimedes' Life. norfacad). While studying in Egypt, he also invented the Archimedes' screw. This is a pump that, when turned, carries water from a lower level to an upper level (Archimedes of Syracuse. math). This pump is still used in many parts of the world and probably similar in operation to hydroelectric turbines that generate electricity today. Along with being a famous physicist, Archimedes is considered to be one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time, along
with Newton and Gauss (10.2. Archimedes shu). He is considered to be the greatest mathematician of antiquity and made his greatest contributions in geometry (Archimedes of Syracuse. math). Archimedes tells an amusing story regarding his friends in Alexandria in the preface of his work, On Spirals. He tells how he was in the habit of sending them statements of his latest theorems, but without giving proofs. Some of the mathematicians there had claimed the results as their own, so Archimedes says that on the last occasion when he sent them theorems, he included two, which were false:
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Approximate Word count = 1428
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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