Archimedes Essay, Research Paper

Archimedes

Archimedes was a brilliant scientist of the ancient world. He was famous for shouting Eureka! while running through the streets of Syracuse naked after discovering a scientific principle during a bath. Many people thinks he is the greatest scientist of the ancient world. And that s why I m writing about him.

The actual birth date of Archimedes is unknown up to today. He was thought to be born on 287 B.C and died on 212 B.C at the age of seventy-five. His close friend King Hiero the second. He ruled from 270 B.C to 216 B.C which mostly covers Archimedes adult life.

When Archimedes grew up, he studied science and mathematics and help the king if he have any problems. You see, the king was fascinated by smaller forces able to move big objects, and he would have many problems that only his clever friend can solve.

One of these problem was that when Hiero was getting his role as king, a crown was set upon his head. But then he think that maybe the goldsmith have substitute some gold with cheaper metal. So he called for the ingenious Archimedes to solve the problem. So Archimedes pondered the problem in a hot bath. Then he notice that the water level rose as he lowered himself into the water. He jumped up and ran all the way to the palace naked!

Archimedes also was very interested in finding the area of a circle. In those days, you couldn t just get a scientific calculator and punch in pi x r2. You have to do all kinds of complicated equations. Archimedes found an easier way to do this. He invented a spiral in which a triangle that have the same area as the circle was made. Here s what it looks like:

He Archimedes also pondered over the number pi. Many civilizations pondered over this number. It began long ago and the earliest one was in the Bible. One version says: He made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass and a line of thirty cubits did compass round about . So the Bible thinks that pi is three. But as you know, that is wrong. Archimedes was there to clear it up after thousands of years of opinions. He drew this:

He said that if the circle inside have a diameter of one, it will have a circumference of pi. The little square inside has a perimeter or the square root of eight, about 2.8. the other square has a perimeter of 4. So pi must lie between 4 and 2.8.

All I can say is that Archimedes work amazes me more than anything.