When was archimedes born

Archimedes apparently studied mathematics in Alexandria, but lived most of his life in Syracuse. He discovered how to find the volume of a sphere and determined the value of Pi; developed a way of counting using zeros to represent powers of ten; discovered a formula to find the area under a curve and the amount of space enclosed by a curve; and may have been the first to use integral calculus.

Archimedes also invented the field of statics, enunciated the law of the lever, the law of equilibrium of fluids, and the law of buoyancy. He was the first to identify the concept of center of gravity, and he found the centers of gravity of various geometric figures, including triangles, paraboloids, and hemispheres, assuming the uniform density of their interiors.

Using only ancient Greek geometry, he also gave the equilibrium positions of floating sections of paraboloids as a function of their height, a feat that would be challenging for a modern physicist using calculus. Archimedes only became widely known as a mathematician after Eutocius brought out editions of some of his works, with commentaries, in the sixth century C.

Ancient writers were more interested in his inventions and in the ingenious war machines which he developed than in his achievements in mathematics. He studied in Alexandria and then returned to Syracuse, where he spent the rest of his life. Much of what is known about Archimedes comes from the prefaces to his works and from stories related by Plutarch , Livy and other ancient historiographers.

Archimedes story

In the preface to On Spirals, Archimedes relates that he often sent his friends in Alexandria statements of his latest theorems, but without giving proofs. The same biography contends that Archimedes, possessing a lofty spirit and profound soul, refused to write any treatise on engineering or mechanics but preferred to devote himself to the study of pure geometry and pursued it without regard for food or personal hygiene.

And yet Archimedes possessed such a lofty spirit, so profound a soul, and such a wealth of scientific theory, that although his inventions had won for him a name and fame for superhuman sagacity, 4 he would not consent to leave behind him any treatise on this subject, but regarding the work of an engineer and every art that ministers to the needs of life as ignoble and vulgar, he devoted his earnest efforts only to those studies the subtlety and charm of which are not affected by the claims of necessity.

These studies, he thought, are not to be compared with any others; in them the subject matter vies with the demonstration, the former supplying grandeur and beauty, the latter precision and surpassing power.

Archimedes contributions

Some attribute this success to his natural endowments; others think it due to excessive labour that everything he did seemed to have been performed without labour and with ease. For no one could by his own efforts discover the proof, and yet as soon as he learns it from him, he thinks he might have discovered it himself; so smooth and rapid is the path by which he leads one to the desired conclusion.

Plutarch , Marcellus, translated by John Dryden.