Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse
Ἀρχιμήδης
Archimedes, as an artist thinks he was
Born	c. 287 BC Syracuse, Sicily Magna Graecia
Died	c. 212 BC (aged c. 74–75) Syracuse, Sicily Magna Graecia
Known for	Archimedes' principle Archimedes' screw hydrostatics levers infinitesimals Neuseis constructions[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics Physics Engineering Astronomy Invention

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 – c. 212 BC)^[2] was a Greek scientist. He was an inventor, an astronomer, and a mathematician. He was born in the town of Syracuse in Sicily.

His father was Phidias, an astronomer, and he may have been in the family of a king of Syracuse. Syracuse was a rich Greek city, on the seashore in Sicily. When Archimedes was about ten years old, he left Syracuse to study in Alexandria, Egypt. He was in the school of Euclid, a famous mathematician. Not much is known about the personal life of Archimedes, for example, whether he was married or if he had children.

When the Romans invaded Syracuse, they captured Archimedes so they could learn all of the things he knew. About two years after he was drawing a mathematical diagram in the sand and enraged a soldier by refusing to go to meet the Roman general until he had finished working on the problem. The Roman killed him. His last words are supposed to have been "Do not disturb my circles!"

1. ↑ Knorr, Wilbur R. (1978). "Archimedes and the spirals: The heuristic background". Historia Mathematica. 5 (1): 43–75. doi:10.1016/0315-0860(78)90134-9. ISSN 0315-0860. "To be sure, Pappus does twice mention the theorem on the tangent to the spiral [IV, 36, 54]. But in both instances the issue is Archimedes' inappropriate use of a "solid neusis," that is, of a construction involving the sections of solids, in the solution of a plane problem. Yet Pappus' own resolution of the difficulty [IV, 54] is by his own classification a "solid" method, as it makes use of conic sections." (p. 48)
2. ↑ Evans I.O. (1962). Inventors of the world. Warne. p. 11.