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Essay on Archimedes
| Date: |
03-15-02 9:08am |
| Subject: |
Miscellaneous |
| Word Count: |
861 |
| Page Count: |
3.44 |
Archimedes
Archimedes was born in 287bc in Syracuse, Sicily. He was then killed in 212bc during the capture of Syracuse, second Punic War. Archimedes was working on one of his diagrams when a Roman soldier approached him and asked him to come with him. (As the soldier was told to capture him alive.)Archimedes refused to leave his drawing and the impatient soldier killed him on the spot. It was a tragic end to who maybe the greatest founder of geometry and calculus. He simply just had great enjoyment out of making new properties and find answers.
Archimedes is famous for many things, but most so for this discovery. Archimedes proved that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a circumscribed cylinder.
This is the discovery that Archimedes thought was the most significant he had ever made. He then wanted this situation inscribed on his tomb.
Another famous problem that Archimedes solved was this: King Hieron had given a local metal worker a block of pure gold and asked for him to form it into a glorious crown. When the king got the crown back he noticed that is was abnormally bigger than he thought it would be. So, he asked Archimedes if it could be possible to find out if the blacksmith had possibly melted down the gold, taken some gold, and blend in an equal amount of weight in silver into the crown. Archimedes was thinking of an answer to this when he was bathing. Whenever he sat down in the water the displacement of the water was a direct measure of his volume. Similarly if he immersed the crown in water and measured the overflow, he could find its volume. If the crown was pure gold(no matter what its shape) it would have the same volume as an equal amount of pure gold. When Archimedes measured the volume of the crown, it was greater than the pure gold, Heiron had been ripped off.
A great ship, the Syracusia, had been built. This ship weighed over 4,000 tons. It was to be sent to King Ptolemy of Egypt. But to get this great ship to Egypt they had to get it going. So Archimedes was called in, possibly because he had once claimed: "you can move a given weight by a given force" - in other words you can move any weight no matter how big, using any force, no matter how small. Everybody was now wanting to see Archimedes' mind in action. Archimedes' other famous claim,"Give me a place to stand on and I will move the earth," This meant that if he got enough enough leverage he could move anything even with very little force. Yet he was able to show the people he could. Then this great ship was hoisted away.
Archimedes' inventive ideas also aided his country in such aspects as millitary. He had numerous ideas that were used capable over completely overpowering the opposing armies. The most famous of any weapon ever used was based around the ideas that even little kids now can possess. Yet, it was very effective. It was nearly the same principle as burning bugs with a magnifying glass. When an enemies navy would arive with their sailboats, Archimedes use a large mirror and concentrate the beam on the enemies' sails. Something so amazingly simple, while being very effective. His ideas though were so advanced for his time period. Things like this baffled normal citizens then, they had no idea how he was able to think up these things. He was just simply amazing.
Archimedes has also had many more great discoveries that still hold place in modern day math and science. Without him we probably would not be where we are today. Especially in geometry, many of the properties and ideas came from his genius mind. He is quite possibly the most brilliant man of all time. We have benefited immensely from all his magnificent discoveries. Without him we probably would not be where we are today.
Archimedes' Principle -- notes that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed upward by a force equal in magnitude to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. The upward force is a consequence of the fact that there is increasing pressure with increasing depth in a fluid in a gravitational field.
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