ARCHIMEDES LIFE 1

Archimedes Life

By: Madelyn Casper

Salt Lake Community College Physics 1010

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Everything around us can relate to Physics in one way or another. There are many people
who have participated and built upon everything we now know about physics. One person in
particular that we will be focusing on and learning about is Archimedes. He is the founder of the
Archimedes principle, which states that if an object is displaced, it will be buoyed up based upon
the weight of the fluid that was displaced. Before we get into that, we will be taking a look at his
life and all of his greatest accomplishments. His accomplishments include, but arent limited to
his discovery of Archimedes Principle, Archimedes Screw, mathematics, levers, and
Infinitesimals.

Archimedes was born in 287 BC in the city of Syracuse and is a great Ancient Greek
mathematician and inventor. His dad was a mathematician and astronomer. As Archimedes was
a youth, he developed a strong and curious mind, but lucky for him, he also had a knack for
problem solving. Archimedes had such a strong love for learning and was always looking to
learn more. After he had learned all he could from his teachers in Syracuse, he traveled to Egypt,
so he could learn and study in Alexandria. Alexandria was a school that was founded by
Alexander the Great, and by the time Archimedes went there to study, it had earned quite the
reputation for learning. After he felt he had learned all he could there, he traveled back to his
home town of Syracuse where he pursued his life in thought and invention.

One of Archimedes most important discoveries is Archimedes Principle. This discovery

is now able to help us find to volume of an object that has an irregular shape. It is known that
King Hiero had received a crown that was supposed to be 100% gold, but this King suspected
that there had been a use of silver in too, so he turned to Archimedes for help. For Archimedes to
determine this, he had to come up with an idea of how to do so. He came up with the idea of the
fluid that is displaced, must be proportional to the submerged object, which is exactly how he
found the answer to King Hieros question. Rumor has it that when Archimedes had discovered
this, he ran down the streets naked, yelling Eureka! with excitement.

Archimedes also made the discovery of the screw. Again, King Hiero had a ship.
However, it wasnt just any ship, it could hold up to 600 people, it had a gym, there was a temple
on it, and it also had a garden. The only problem was that the rain water wouldnt drain out. So,
King Hiero turned to Archimedes for help. This is where he invented the screw, this isnt a screw
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like we are used to seeing. This screw This device is rather like a corkscrew within an empty
tube. When the screw turns, water is pulled up the tube, so the screw can pull water up from a
river, lake, or well. (Home, 2014). With the invention of his screw, he was able to solve the
kings problem, and change the course of history. His invention is still used today for irrigation
purposes and helping with farming purposes like moving grain and other materials.

Archimedes made some great contributions to mathematics. According to Crirstian

Violatti (2013) he proved theories that contribute to our knowledge on the area of solids, and we
are no longer help back by their curves and surfaces. He was able to analyses problems in statics
and hydrostatics at the geometrical standpoint. Archimedes also played a part in counting, in
fact, he was able to emphasize it and its importance with his invention of the Sand Reckoner.
Another great thing that he did was the measurement of a circle, he was able to approximate the
values of pi. Although his discoveries were not as precise as they are now, he was able to set
upper and lower limits on the number for pi. He figured out that the circumference of a circle is
the ratio to its diameter. When he discovered that, he then made it possible to find volumes of
objects that had curved lines such as pyramids, cones, circles, and spheres. From there, he only
discovered more, he was able to determine how to find the volume of the sphere with the
calculation 2 pi times the radius (half of the diameter of the circle).

Archimedes was such a great mathematician, that he wrote a book The Method where he
revealed how he did his math. the book revealed all his discoveries for math. After writing it he
sent it to Eratosthenes to be logged in the Library of Alexandria. Upon sending it he wrote, I
presume there will be some current as well as future generations who can use The Method to find
theorems which we have not discovered. (Home, 2014). However, this book was lost, and
people knew his calculations were right, but they just couldnt figure out how he made them.
They couldnt figure out how he got his answers, his formulas, they did not know the work in
order to solve them. It wasnt until the early 1900s that the book was found in Turkey and they
were able to make the connections through his work to understand how he came to those
conclusions.

We know, but only through summaries that Archimedes was able to formulate the Law of
Lever and Balance. He was able to do it so accurately that no one dared to or even could make a
contribution to his finding until the 16th century CE. The lever is what we know associate with
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the teeter totter. With a lever you are able to lift heavy objects off the ground with less force than
lifting and moving it by yourself. He was also able to discover the benefits of the pulley and
lifting things with a large weight. Archimedes was so amazed with these discoveries that King
Hieron challenged him. Her challenge was to have her move a vessel using levers and pullies.
So, by her sitting on one end of a mechanism she was able to move a fully loaded vessel out of
water, and then pace it on the land, mind you, that this was a task that one hundred men could
barely do.

Under the direction of King Hiero II, Archimedes was set to building walls for Syracuse
for their defense system in anticipation of wars. When the King died, they were attacked from
the land and the sea. However, Archimedes was able to use his engineering skills and develop
catapults that hurled stones far distances and put holes in the city wall so that the bowmen could
shoot their arrows through and defend themselves. He was also able to help them to develop a
system that would drop heavy weights on the ships as they would approach. These heavy weights
were able to cause such great destruction that the attackers, the Romans, abandoned their attack
on Syracuse, and come up with a new idea to capture them. They decided that the best way to
capture Syracuse was to start a siege and essentially starve the city until they surrendered.

It took nearly two years for the Romans to prevail and take over the city. After the
takeover, Marcellus, one of the Romans, had a great admiration towards Archimedes so he sent
for him. When the solider arrived to take Archimedes to Marcellus, he was unaware the Romans
had stormed the city, and he was too involved in one of his mathematical problems to stop and
go. This caused the soldier to react out of anger and kill the Great Archimedes. The fact that
Archimedes was able to die doing what he loved, and what he is known for, was a great honor
for him.

Archimedes was able to make all those discoveries in his short 75 years on earth,
however his contributions didnt stop there. People everywhere will continue to learn of all the
great things that he has contributed to forever. Archimedes was able to help us learn about the
laws of buoyancy. We know how his invention of the screw that is still being used today. He
helped us take our first steps in circles, learning of pi and the volumes of circles. Archimedes
was able to show others how to use levers and pullies, that in turn, helped to prolong the
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capturing the surrendering of Syracuse. Archimedes was a great man and holds a great
contribution to what we have today.
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References

Hewitt, P. G. (2015). Conceptual physics. Boston: Pearson.

Home. (2014, July 1). Retrieved November 09, 2017, from

https://www.famousscientists.org/archimedes/

Project, T. A. (n.d.). The Archimedes Palimpsest. Retrieved November 09, 2017, from
http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/about/history/archimedes.php

Violatti, C. (2013, June 24). Archimedes. Ancient History Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from Https://www.ancient.eu/archimedes/

Who is Archimedes? Everything You Need to Know. (2017, July 24). Retrieved November 09,
2017, from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/archimedes-422.php