![]() ![]() The water-screw which he invented (see below) was probably devised in Egypt for the purpose of irrigating fields.Īrchimedes died at the capture of Syracuse by Marcellus, 212 B.C. He is said to have fixed on a large and fully laden ship and to have used a mechanical device by which Hiero was enabled to move it by himself: but accounts differ as to the particular mechanical powers employed. He was so overjoyed when this happy thought struck him that he ran home without his clothes, shouting eiipfKa, eiip? Ka, " I have found it, have found it." Similarly his pioneer work in mechanics is illustrated by the story of his having said 80s pot iroi Kai KU'i Tip 'yi]v (or as another version has it, in his dialect, 7ra 0c7) Kai Kivw TOY -yav), " Give me a place to stand and I (will) move the earth." Hiero asked him to give an illustration of his contention that a very great weight could be moved by a very small force. According to one story, Archimedes was puzzled till one day, as he was stepping into a bath and observed the water running over, it occurred to him that the excess of bulk occasioned by the introduction of alloy could be measured by putting the crown and an equal weight of gold separately into a vessel filled with water, and observing the difference of overflow. More important, as being doubtless connected with the discovery of the principle in hydrostatics which bears his name and the foundation by him of that whole science, is the story of Hiero's reference to him of the question whether a crown made for him and purporting to be of gold, did not actually contain a proportion of silver. This has been discredited because it is not mentioned by Polybius, Livy or Plutarch but it is probable that Archimedes had constructed some such burning instrument, though the connexion of it with the destruction of the Roman fleet is more than doubtful. There is a story that he constructed a burning mirror which set the Roman ships on fire when they were within a bowshot of the wall. Thus he devised for Hiero engines of war which almost terrified the Romans, and which protracted the siege of Syracuse for three years. As, however, these machines impressed the popular imagination, they naturally figure largely in the traditions about him. He himself set no value on the ingenious mechanical contrivances which made him famous, regarding them as beneath the dignity of pure science and even declining to leave any written record of them except in the case of the r /xupolroLta (Sphere-making), as to which see below. On his return to his native city he devoted himself to mathematical research. He studied at Alexandria and doubtless met there Conon of Samos, whom he admired as a mathematician and cherished as a friend, and to whom he was in the habit of communicating his discoveries before publication. He was the son of Pheidias, an astronomer, and was on intimate terms with, if not related to, Hiero, king of Syracuse, and Gelo his son. 287 -212 B.C.), Greek mathematician and inventor, was born at Syracuse, in Sicily.
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