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Archimedes was born around 287 B.C. in Syracuse,
a town in the Greek colony of Sicily. His father was
the astronomer Phidias.
Archimedes was educated in Alexandria, Egypt.
At that time, Alexandria was the intellectual
capital of the world and Archimedes got the
chance to study with many of the greatest minds in
the Greek world.
As a boy he invented and built a planetarium that
reproduced movement of the planets. This was
one of his many early inventions that clearly
indicated he was very gifted and unique.
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While in the bath
tub he made one of
his most famous
discoveries. This
was the principle of
physics stating that
each object has its
own special
density.
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Archimedes had many inventions in his time.
: Archimedes Screw. Simple enough. He used
a screw-like device to pump water out of a
body of water into another container.
: Grappling cranes, catapults, and even giant
mirrors that if reflected at an opposing ship,
with the help of the sun, could start the other
ship on fire. All these instruments helped
defend his Native Syracuse against the Roman
Empire.
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His most famous contribution
was the approximation of Pi.
This helped builders with
designs back then but not as
much today.
His discovery of pi led him to
the being able to find the area
under the curve. This
knowledge is a significant part
of calculus which wasn’t
invented for 2000 years.
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Archimedes developed a system for counting
large numbers. Now this doesn’t sound like a
big accomplishment but the Greeks could not
count to very due to the fact that they used
letters for there numbers. Archimedes would
challenge himself to solve a nearly impossible
equation to the Greeks due to the size of the
answer. Eventually he turned numbers into
words in Greek that meant something along
the lines of infinity to us today. The biggest
number he named was 1 followed by 80
quadrillion zeros.
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Archimedes claimed one of his greatest
discoveries was that of finding the volume and
surface area of a sphere.
This is a fairly big accomplishment seeing as
how we have used these formulas for the last
2000 years.
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While drawing circles in the dust, a Roman
soldier walks up and tells him to quit drawing
and to come with him. Archimedes yells
“Don’t disturb my circles” and is shortly after
stabbed by the soldier.
On his gravestone was placed the drawing of a
sphere inscribed by a cylinder and the 2:3 ratio
between their volumes a solution he
considered his greatest accomplishment.
“Archimedes is considered one of the three
greatest mathematicians of all time along with
Newton and Gauss. In his own time, he was
known as "the wise one," "the master" and "the
great geometer" and his works and inventions
brought him fame that lasts to this very day.
He was one of the last great Greek
mathematicians.”
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 "Archimedes (c. 287 B.C.-212 B.C.)." DISCovering Biography. Online ed.
Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Gale. Mesa County Valley
School District. 18 May. 2009
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Marine Subsea Group. 18 May 2009
<http://www.msgmarine.no/?div_id=15&pag_id=15>.
"Syracuse, Archimedes of (287 B.C.-212 B.C.)." Math and Mathematicians.
Ed. Leonard C. Bruno. Detroit: UXL, 1999. Discovering Collection. Gale.
Mesa County Valley School District. 18 May. 2009
<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GBRC&typ
e=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=DC&docId=EK1669000003&source=gal
e&userGroupName=gran68706&version=1.0>.
Calinger, Ronald S. "Archimedes." World Book Student. 2009. [Place of
access.] 19 May 2009
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar028620>.