Archimedes and his discoveries. Brief biography of Archimedes Celestial sphere of Archimedes

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Archimedes is an outstanding ancient Greek mathematician, inventor and engineer who lived in the 3rd century BC. e. This man was born in 287 BC. e. in the city of Syracuse in Sicily. At that time it was a colony of Ancient Greece and was called Magna Graecia. It included the territory of modern Southern Italy and Sicily.

The date of birth is known from the words of the Byzantine historian John Tzetz. He lived in Constantinople in the 12th century. That is, almost one and a half thousand years after Archimedes. He also wrote that the famous ancient Greek mathematician lived 75 years. Such accurate information raises certain doubts, but let us show respect for the outstanding minds of antiquity and accept the indicated dates and figures as the truth.

Biography of Archimedes

So, an outstanding resident of Magna Graecia was born in 287 BC. e., and died in 212 BC. e. His father was an astronomer named Phidias, about whom nothing is known. Family ties with the tyrant of Syracuse, Hieron II, are also suggested. The most detailed biography of Archimedes was written by his friend Heraclides. But this work was lost, and therefore the details of the life of the mathematician and inventor remained unclear. Nothing is known about his wife and children, but there is no doubt about his studies in Alexandria, where the famous Library of Alexandria was located.

There, the young man, striving for knowledge, established friendly relations with the mathematician and astronomer Conon of Samos and the astronomer, mathematician and philologist Erastothenes of Cyrene - these were famous scientists of that time. Our hero struck up a strong friendship with them. It continued throughout my life, and was expressed in correspondence.

It was within the walls of the Library of Alexandria that Archimedes became acquainted with the works of such famous geometers as Eudoxus and Democritus. He also gained much other useful knowledge and after a few years returned to his homeland in Syracuse. There he quickly established himself as an intelligent and gifted person, and lived for many years, enjoying the respect of those around him.

An outstanding personality died during the Second Punic War, when Roman troops captured Syracuse after a 2-year siege. The Roman commander was Marcus Claudius Marcellus. According to Plutarch, he ordered that Archimedes be found and brought to him. A Roman soldier came to the house of an outstanding mathematician while he was pondering mathematical formulas. The soldier demanded to immediately go with him and meet with Marcellus.

But the mathematician brushed off the obsessive Roman, saying that he must first complete the work. The soldier was indignant and stabbed the smartest resident of Syracuse with a sword. There is also a version that claims that Archimedes was killed right on the street while he was carrying mathematical instruments in his hands. The Roman soldiers decided that these were valuable objects and stabbed the mathematician to death. But be that as it may, the death of this man outraged Marcellus, since his order was violated.

Archimedes is killed by a Roman soldier

140 years after these events, the famous Roman orator Cicero arrived in Sicily. He tried to find the tomb of Archimedes, but none of the local residents knew where it was. Finally, the grave was found in a dilapidated state in the bushes on the outskirts of Syracuse. The gravestone depicted a ball and a cylinder inscribed in it. Poems were engraved underneath them. However, this version does not have any documentary evidence.

In the early 60s of the 20th century, an ancient grave was also discovered in the courtyard of the Panorama Hotel in Syracuse. The hotel owners began to claim that this was the burial place of the great mathematician and inventor of antiquity. But again, they did not provide any convincing evidence. In a word, to this day it is unknown where Archimedes is buried and in what place his grave is located.

This outstanding person made a very great contribution to the development of mathematics. He was able to find a general method for calculating volumes and areas using infinitesimal quantities. That is, it was he who laid the foundation for integral calculus. He also proved that the ratio of circumference to diameter is a constant. He laid the foundation for differential calculus, that is, he did everything that mathematicians were able to continue only in the 17th century. From here we can safely say that this man was ahead of mathematical science by 2 thousand years.

In mechanics, he developed a lever and began to successfully apply it in practice. In the port of Syracuse, block-lever mechanisms were made that raised and lowered heavy loads. He also invented the Archimedes screw, which was used to bail out water. Created a theory about the balancing of equal bodies.

He proved that a body immersed in a liquid is subject to a buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. This idea came to him in the bath. Its simplicity so shocked the outstanding mathematician and inventor that he jumped out of the bath and, dressed as Adam, ran through the streets of Syracuse shouting “Eureka,” which means “found.” Subsequently, this proof was called Archimedes' law.

Archimedes' claw lifts a Roman ship

During the long siege of Syracuse by the Romans, Archimedes was already an elderly man, but his mind did not lose its sharpness. As Plutarch wrote, under his leadership, throwing machines were built that threw heavy stones at Roman soldiers. Close range throwing machines were also made. They destroyed enemies near the walls, dropping barrels of boiling resin and stone cannonballs on them.

Roman galleys scurrying around the port of Syracuse were attacked by special cranes with grappling hooks (Archimedes' claw). With the help of these hooks, the besieged lifted ships into the air and threw them down from a great height. The ships, hitting the water, broke and sank. All these technological advances scared the invaders. They abandoned the assault on the city and moved on to a long siege.

There is a legend that Archimedes ordered the shields to be polished to a mirror shine, and then arranged them in such a way that, reflecting the color of the sun, they focused it into powerful rays. They were sent to Roman ships, and they burned. Already in our time, the Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas created a cascade of 70 copper mirrors and, with its help, set fire to a plywood model of a ship, which was located at a distance of 75 meters from the mirrors. So this legend could well have a practical basis.

A focused sunbeam sets a ship on fire

And, of course, the outstanding inventor could not ignore astronomy, because at that distant time it was extremely popular. He tried to determine the distance from the Earth to the planets, but was guided by the fact that the center of the world is the Earth, and the Sun and Moon revolve around it. At the same time, he assumed that Mars, Mercury and Venus revolve around the Sun.

Legacy of Archimedes

Archimedes wrote his works in Doric Greek, the dialect spoken in Syracuse. But the originals have not survived. They have come to us in retellings by other authors. All this was systematized and collected into a single collection by the Byzantine architect Isidore of Miletus, who lived in Constantinople in the 6th century. This collection was translated into Arabic in the 9th century, and in the 12th century it was translated into Latin.

During the Renaissance, the works of the Greek thinker were published in Basel in Latin and Greek. Based on these works, Galileo Galilei invented hydrostatic balances at the end of the 16th century.

In 1906, Danish professor Johan Ludwig Heiberg discovered a 174-page prayer collection written in the 13th century in Constantinople. The scientist found out that it was a palimpsest, that is, text written over old text. At that time, this was common practice, since the tanned goatskin from which the pages were made was very expensive. The old text was scraped off and new text was written on top of it.

It turned out that the scraped work was a copy of an unknown treatise by Archimedes. The copy was written in the 10th century. Using ultraviolet and x-ray light, this hitherto unknown work was read. These were works on equilibrium, on measuring the circumference of a sphere and a cylinder, and on floating bodies. Currently, this document is kept in the Baltimore City Museum (Maryland, USA).

Archimedes, an outstanding ancient Greek mathematician, inventor and engineer, lived in the 3rd century BC (287 - 212 BC).

Archimedes' friend Heraclides wrote a biography of the great scientist, but it was lost and now very little is known about his life. Little is known about his life also because almost all the authors who conveyed his biography themselves lived much later. As a result, the biography of Archimedes is filled with legends, some of which have become very popular. However, legends about Archimedes were created during his lifetime. Much less is known about the scientist’s personal life than about his science.

From the biography of Archimedes:

Archimedes was born in the city of Syracuse in Sicily. At that time it was one of the first ancient Greek colonies on the island of Sicily and was called Magna Graecia. It included the territory of modern Southern Italy and Sicily. + Archimedes was born in 287 BC. e. The date of birth is known from the words of the Byzantine historian John Tzetz. He lived in Constantinople in the 12th century. That is, almost one and a half thousand years after Archimedes. He also wrote that the famous ancient Greek mathematician lived 75 years. Such accurate information raises certain doubts, but we have to believe the ancient historian. The biography of Archimedes is known from the works of Titus, Cicero, Polybius, Livy, Vitruvius and other authors who lived later than the scientist himself. It is difficult to assess the reliability of these data.

Archimedes probably spent his childhood in Syracuse. The scientist probably received his primary education from his father. His father, presumably, was the astronomer and mathematician Phidias. Plutarch also claimed that the scientist was a close relative of the ruler of Syracuse, Hiero II.

Being related to such celebrities, Archimedes was able to receive an excellent education: he studied in Alexandria, which at that time was famous as a center of learning. Alexandria of Egypt was for several centuries the cultural and scientific center of the civilized Ancient World. There Archimedes met and became friends with many other great scientific figures of his time.

Bust of Archimedes

It was in Alexandria that a young man striving for knowledge established friendly relations with the mathematician and astronomer Conon of Samos and the astronomer, mathematician and philologist Erastothenes of Cyrene - these were famous scientists of that time. Archimedes struck up a strong friendship with them. It continued throughout my life, and was expressed in correspondence.

Also within the walls of the Library of Alexandria, Archimedes became acquainted with the works of such famous geometers as Eudoxus and Democritus. He also learned a lot of other useful knowledge. After training, he returned to his homeland and could fully engage in science, since he did not need funds. In his homeland in Syracuse, Archimedes quickly established himself as an intelligent and gifted person, and lived for many years, enjoying the respect of others, and lived there until the end of his life.

Nothing is known about his wife and children, but there is no doubt about his studies in Alexandria, where the famous Library of Alexandria was located.

Archimedes died during the Second Punic War, when Roman troops captured Syracuse after a 2-year siege. The Roman commander was Marcus Claudius Marcellus. According to Plutarch, he ordered that Archimedes be found and brought to him. A Roman soldier came to the house of an outstanding mathematician while he was pondering mathematical formulas. The soldier demanded to immediately go with him and meet with Marcellus. But the mathematician brushed off the obsessive Roman, saying that he must first complete the work. The soldier was indignant and stabbed the smartest resident of Syracuse with a sword.

There is also a version that claims that Archimedes was killed right on the street while he was carrying mathematical instruments in his hands. The Roman soldiers decided that these were valuable objects and stabbed the mathematician to death. But be that as it may, the death of this man outraged Marcellus, since his order was violated. There are other versions of this story, but they agree that the ancient Roman politician and military leader Marcellus was extremely upset by the death of the scientist and, uniting with both the citizens of Syracuse and his own subjects, gave Archimedes a magnificent funeral.

Scientific activities and inventions of Archimedes:

The ancient Greek physicist, mathematician and engineer Archimedes made many geometric discoveries, laid the foundations of hydrostatics and mechanics, and created inventions that served as the starting point for the further development of science. +Discoveries in the field of mathematics were the scientist’s real passion. According to Plutarch, Archimedes forgot about food and self-care when he was on the verge of another invention in this area. The main direction of his mathematical research was the problems of mathematical analysis.

Even before Archimedes, formulas were invented to calculate the areas of circles and polygons, the volumes of pyramids, cones and prisms. But the scientist’s experience allowed him to develop general techniques for calculating volumes and areas. To this end, he improved the method of exhaustion, invented by Eudoxus of Cnidus, and brought the ability to apply it to a virtuoso level. Archimedes did not create the theory of integral calculus, but his work subsequently became the basis for this theory.

Also, an outstanding mathematician laid the foundations of differential calculus. From a geometric point of view, he studied the possibility of determining the tangent to a curved line, and from a physical point of view, the speed of a body at any moment in time. The scientist examined a flat curve known as the Archimedean spiral. He found the first generalized way to find tangents to a hyperbola, parabola and ellipse. From here we can safely say that this man was ahead of mathematical science by 2 thousand years. Only in the seventeenth century were scientists able to fully understand and reveal all the ideas of Archimedes, which reached those times in his surviving works. The scientist often refused to describe his inventions in books, which is why not every formula he wrote has survived to this day.

The scientist also actively developed mechanical structures. He developed and outlined a detailed theory of the lever and effectively used this theory in practice, although the invention itself was known even before him. Block-lever mechanisms were made in the port of Syracuse. These devices made it easier to lift and move heavy loads, speeding up and optimizing port operations.

He also invented a screw that was used to bail out water. His “Archimedes screw” is still used in Egypt. Archimedes created a theory about the balancing of equal bodies. He proved that a body immersed in a liquid is subject to a buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. This idea came to him in the bath. Its simplicity so shocked the outstanding mathematician and inventor that he jumped out of the bath and, dressed as Adam, ran through the streets of Syracuse shouting “Eureka,” which means “found.” Subsequently, this proof was called Archimedes' law. +The theoretical research of a scientist in the field of mechanics is of great importance. Based on the proof of the law of leverage, he began to write the work “On the Equilibrium of Plane Figures.” The proof is based on the axiom that equal bodies on equal shoulders will necessarily balance. Archimedes followed the same principle of constructing a book - starting with the proof of his own law - when writing the work “On the Floating of Bodies”. This book begins with a description of Archimedes' well-known law.

The scientist considered the invention of formulas for calculating the surface area and volume of a ball to be a worthy discovery. If in the previous cases described, Archimedes refined and improved other people’s theories, or created quick calculation methods as an alternative to existing formulas, then in the case of determining the volume and surface of a ball, he was the first. Before him, no scientist had coped with this task. Therefore, the mathematician asked to knock out a ball inscribed in a cylinder on his gravestone.

There is a legend associated with Archimedes' law. One day, the scientist was allegedly approached by Hiero II, who doubted that the weight of the crown made for him corresponded to the weight of the gold that was provided for its creation. Archimedes made two ingots of the same weight as the crown: silver and gold. Next, he placed these ingots in turn in a vessel with water and noted how much its level increased. The scientist then placed the crown in the vessel and discovered that the water did not rise to the level to which it rose when each of the ingots was placed in the vessel. Thus, it was discovered that the master had kept some of the gold for himself.

Archimedes became the inventor of the first planetarium. When this device moves, the following is observed: the rising of the Moon and the Sun; the movement of the five planets; disappearance of the Moon and Sun beyond the horizon; phases and eclipses of the Moon.

The scientist also tried to create formulas for calculating distances to celestial bodies. Modern researchers suggest that Archimedes considered the Earth to be the center of the world. He believed that Venus, Mars and Mercury revolved around the Sun, and this entire system revolved around the Earth.

His contemporaries also composed numerous legends about the gifted mathematician, physicist and engineer. Legend says that one day Hiero II decided to present Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, with a multi-deck ship as a gift. It was decided to name the water vessel “Syracuse”, but it could not be launched. In this situation, the ruler again turned to Archimedes. From several blocks he built a system with the help of which the launch of a heavy vessel was possible with one movement of the hand. According to legend, during this movement Archimedes said: “Give me a point of support, and I will turn the world upside down.”

The scientist helped his compatriots in naval battles. The cranes he developed grabbed enemy ships with iron hooks, lifted them slightly, and then abruptly threw them back. Because of this, ships turned over and crashed. For a long time, these cranes were considered something of a legend, but in 2005 a group of researchers proved the functionality of such devices by reconstructing them from surviving descriptions.

In 212 BC, during the Second Punic War, the Romans began to storm Syracuse. At this time, Archimedes was already an elderly man, but his mind did not lose its sharpness. Archimedes actively used engineering knowledge to help his people achieve victory. As Plutarch wrote, under his leadership, throwing machines were built, with the help of which the soldiers of Syracuse threw heavy stones at their opponents. When the Romans rushed to the walls of the city, hoping that they would not come under fire, another invention of Archimedes - light throwing devices with close action - helped the Greeks pelt them with cannonballs. Roman galleys scurrying around the port of Syracuse were attacked by special cranes with grappling hooks (Archimedes' claw). With the help of these hooks, the besieged lifted ships into the air and threw them down from a great height. The ships, hitting the water, broke and sank. All these technological advances scared the invaders. So, thanks to the efforts of Archimedes, the Romans’ hope of storming the city failed. They abandoned the assault on the city and moved on to a long siege. In the fall of 212 BC, the colony was taken by the Romans as a result of treason. Archimedes was killed during this incident. According to one version, he was hacked to death by a Roman soldier, whom the scientist attacked for stepping on his drawing.

There is a legend that Archimedes ordered the shields to be polished to a mirror shine, and then arranged them in such a way that, reflecting the color of the sun, they focused it into powerful rays. They were sent to Roman ships, and they burned. Mentions of these weapons are mere legends, but in recent years experiments have been carried out to determine whether these inventions could actually exist. In 2005, scientists reproduced the cranes, which turned out to be fully functional. And in 1973, Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas set fire to a plywood model of a Roman ship using a combination of mirrors. He created a cascade of 70 copper mirrors and used it to set fire to a plywood model of a ship, which was located 75 meters from the mirrors. So this legend could well have a practical basis.

However, scientists continue to doubt the existence of “mirror” weapons in Syracuse, since none of the ancient authors mentions it; information about it appeared only in the early Middle Ages - from the 6th century author Anthemius of Trallia. Despite a heroic - and ingenious - defense, Syracuse was eventually conquered.

Legacy of Archimedes:

During the Renaissance, the works of the Greek thinker were published in Basel in Latin and Greek. Based on these works, Galileo Galilei invented hydrostatic balances at the end of the 16th century.

*Archimedes screw, or auger, is used for lifting and transporting loads and scooping out water. This device is still used today (for example, in Egypt).

*Various types of cranes, which were based on blocks and levers.

*"Celestial Sphere" is the world's first planetarium, with the help of which it was possible to observe the movement of the sun, moon and five then known planets.

*The number close to the number P is the so-called “Archimedean number”: 3 1/7; Archimedes himself indicated the accuracy of the approximation of this number. To solve this problem, he built a circle with 96-gons inscribed and circumscribed around it, the sides of which he then measured.

*Discovery of the fundamental law of physics in general and hydrostatics in particular. This law is named after him and consists of the relationship between the buoyant force, volume and weight of a body immersed in a liquid.

*As the first theorist of mechanics, Archimedes introduced thought experiments into it. The first such experiments were his proofs of the law of the lever and Archimedes' law.

*In 1906, Danish professor Johan Ludwig Heiberg discovered a 174-page prayer collection in Constantinople, written in the 13th century. The scientist found out that it was a palimpsest, that is, text written over old text. At that time, this was common practice, since the tanned goatskin from which the pages were made was very expensive. The old text was scraped off and new text was written on top of it. It turned out that the scraped work was a copy of an unknown treatise by Archimedes. The copy was written in the 10th century. Using ultraviolet and x-ray light, this hitherto unknown work was read. These were works on equilibrium, on measuring the circumference of a sphere and a cylinder, and on floating bodies. Currently, this document is kept in the Baltimore City Museum (Maryland, USA).

*Works of Archimedes: Quadrature of the parabola, On the ball and cylinder, On spirals, On conoids and spheroids, On the equilibrium of plane figures, Epistle to Eratosthenes on the method, On floating bodies, Measurement of the circle, Psammit, Stomachion, Archimedes' problem on bulls, Treatise on construction around the ball of a solid figure with fourteen bases, Book of Lemmas, Book on the construction of a circle divided into seven equal parts, Book on touching circles.

Archimedes: interesting facts

1.Archimedes did not leave any students after himself, because he did not want to create his own school and train successors.

2. Some of Archimedes’ calculations were repeated only fifteen hundred years later by Newton and Leibniz.

3. Some scientists claim that Archimedes was the inventor of the cannon. Thus, Leonardo da Vinci even drew a sketch of a steam cannon, the invention of which he attributed to the ancient Greek scientist. Plutarch wrote that during the siege of Syracuse, the Romans were fired upon by a device that resembled a long tube and “spitted out” cannonballs.

4. Archimedes’ friend Heraclides wrote a biography of the great scientist, but it was lost and now little is known about his life.

5. Some contemporaries considered Archimedes crazy. To demonstrate his skills, the scientist before Hieron pulled the triremes ashore using a system of pulleys.

6. The Roman commander Marcellus, commander of the siege of Syracuse, said: “We will have to stop the war against the geometer.”

7.Archimedes is considered one of the best mathematicians and inventors of all time.

9. According to some legends, during the capture of Syracuse, a special detachment of Romans was sent in search of the scientist, who were supposed to capture Archimedes and deliver him to the command. The scientist died only by an absurd accident.

10. Archimedes’ throwing machines could launch stones weighing up to 250 kg. At that time it was a unique combat vehicle.

11.Archimedes made the world's first planetarium.

12. Contemporaries considered Archimedes almost a demigod, and his military inventions terrified the Romans, who had never encountered anything like this before.

13.The well-known legend about mirrors that burned Roman ships has been repeatedly refuted. Most likely, the mirrors were used only to aim the ballistas, which fired incendiary shells at the Roman fleet. There is also an opinion that the Romans were forced to agree to a night assault on the city precisely because of the use of mirrors by the defenders of Syracuse.

14. The “Archimedes screw” was invented by the scientist in his youth and was intended for irrigating fields. Today, screws are used in many industries. And in Egypt they still supply water to the fields.

15. Archimedes considered mathematics his best friend.

Monument to Archimedes

photo from the Internet

Perhaps, when you hear the word inventor or something similar, the name Archimedes often comes to mind. This ancient thinker was truly an outstanding inventor and left a significant number of discoveries that influenced the development of all mankind in the future.

Archimedes was born in 287 BC on the island of Sicily in the capital - Syracuse. He was born into a rather noble family, his father himself was a mathematician, and he was also known to the tyrant of that city, Hieron the Second. Both of them noticed a penchant for knowledge in the boy from an early age and sent Archimedes as a teenager to study in Alexandria in Egypt, where there was the largest library, which Herostratus later burned to become famous.

After studying, during which he met many learned men of his time and learned advanced ideas, Archimedes returned to his homeland and actually entered the service of Hieron. The tyrant wants in every possible way for Archimedes to begin developing all sorts of military innovations for the island, but the young scientist adheres to peaceful views and only wants to study the world. So, Archimedes remains on the island and begins to make his discoveries, many of which turn out to be the result of work with Hiero, for example, it was he who wanted the young mathematician to determine the composition of the crown, but without damaging the object itself.

It was then that the invention appeared about the displacement of bodies of different volumes of water, with identical mass. In addition, Archimedes made many discoveries in mathematics, which were no less than a couple of thousand years ahead of the era. That's right, some ideas, such as semi-regular polyhedra or the use of parabolas and hyperbolas to solve equations, were only appreciated and developed by scientists in modern times, after the Middle Ages.

In 212, Syracuse came under attack from Roman troops. The Second Punic War was then underway and Sicily was at a disadvantage between the empire and Carthage. Archimedes made many military inventions in order to defend his own city (throwing guns, reflecting copper plates and much more), however, Syracuse fell, and Archimedes died at the hands of a Roman soldier.

Biography 2

The exact biography of Archimedes, unfortunately, is unknown. Scientists and archaeologists from different eras cited different facts from his life, but they are also based on the works of people who lived much later than Archimedes. According to the most common version, the future mathematician was born in 287 BC. Place of birth was Syracuse (island of Sicily). The boy's father, an astronomer and mathematician, sent his son to study in Alexandria. The favorite place of the future physicist and mathematician was the library of Alexandria, where he studied the works and writings of Democritus, Eudoxus and many other scientists. There Archimedes makes acquaintances that he will carry throughout his life.

The young man loved mathematics from his youth. He devoted all his time to developments in the fields of arithmetic, algebra and geometry. Specialists in these fields were able to understand, classify and develop his ideas only by the 17th century. Archimedes solved complex equations by finding solutions graphically. He calculated the areas and volumes of various geometric figures. He collected and generalized already known calculation methods into unified principles and formulas. He derived and proved postulates and axioms, which not only have not been refuted, but have also been taken as a basis by modern scientists. One of his most important achievements in geometry, in his own words, was to find the surface area and volume of a sphere. He also derived formulas for calculating the volumes of a paraboloid, hyperboloid of revolution and ellipsoid. Before Archimedes, no mathematician had performed these calculations.

In addition to arithmetic, algebra and his beloved geometry, Archimedes applied his knowledge in the field of mechanics and physics, inventing and improving existing structures and mechanisms. For example, Archimedes improved the lever known before his birth, calculating its capabilities and putting it into practice in the port of Syracuse. Some devices and mechanisms based on the principle of leverage have since made hard work much easier.

Astronomy also did not leave him indifferent. The scientist was engaged in determining the distance between space objects, although he did this from an erroneous point of view. After all, in the 3rd century BC. The geocentric theory of the existence of the world was widespread. However, later Archimedes presented the heliocentric theory in one of his works.

A chain of mountains and a crater on the surface of the Moon, an asteroid, streets in several Russian cities, and a street in Amsterdam are named in his honor. Archimedes died during military operations during the Roman attack on Syracuse. For the victory of his homeland, the scientist created throwing mechanisms. Roman troops suffered significantly from these machines. It was decided to keep the city under siege. In 212 BC. Syracuse surrendered and Archimedes was killed.

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Archimedes (287-212 BC), ancient Greek philosopher and scientist.

Native and citizen of Syracuse (island of Sicily). received in Alexandria, the greatest cultural center of the ancient world.

Archimedes was responsible for a number of important mathematical discoveries (in the field of the relationship between the length and diameter of a circle, geometric progression, etc.). The highest achievements of a scientist in the field of physics are the scientific substantiation of the action of a lever and the discovery of the law according to which any body immersed in a liquid is subject to a buoyant force directed upward and equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by it (Archimedes' law).

During the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC), Syracuse, which had sided with Carthage, was subjected to a Roman siege. Archimedes became famous for his active participation in the defense of the city. He created many combat vehicles that delayed the capture of Syracuse for a long time. The possibility of the existence of some of these mechanisms is still in doubt among a number of scientists (despite direct evidence from ancient authors). So, Archimedes seemed to be able to focus

(287 - 212 BC)

Archimedes was born in 287 BC (because of this, many facts of his biography were lost) in the Greek city of Syracuse, where he lived almost his entire life. His father was Phidias, the court astronomer of the ruler of the city of Hiero. Archimedes, like many other ancient Greek scientists, studied in Alexandria, where the rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, gathered the best Greek scientists and thinkers, and also founded the famous, largest library in the world.

After studying in Alexandria, Archimedes returned to Syracuse and inherited his father's position.

In theoretical terms, the work of this great scientist was dazzlingly multifaceted. Archimedes' main works concerned various practical applications of mathematics (geometry), physics, hydrostatics and mechanics. In his work “Parabolas of Quadrature,” Archimedes substantiated the method for calculating the area of a parabolic segment, and he did this two thousand years before the discovery of integral calculus. In his work “On the Measurement of a Circle,” Archimedes first calculated the number “pi” - the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter - and proved that it is the same for any circle. We still use the system of naming integers invented by Archimedes.

The mathematical method of Archimedes, associated with the mathematical works of the Pythagoreans and with the work of Euclid that completed them, as well as with the discoveries of Archimedes' contemporaries, led to the knowledge of the material space surrounding us, to the knowledge of the theoretical form of objects located in this space, the form of a perfect, geometric form, to to which objects more or less approach and the laws of which must be known if we want to influence the material world.

But Archimedes also knew that objects have more than just shape and dimension: they move, or can move, or remain motionless under the influence of certain forces that move objects forward or bring them into balance. The great Syracusan studied these forces, inventing a new branch of mathematics in which material bodies, reduced to their geometric form, at the same time retain their weight. This geometry of weight is rational mechanics, it is statics, as well as hydrostatics, the first law of which was discovered by Archimedes (the law bearing the name of Archimedes), according to which a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by it acts on a body immersed in a liquid.

Once, having raised his leg in the water, Archimedes noted with surprise that his leg became lighter in the water. "Eureka! Found it,” he exclaimed, leaving his bath. The anecdote is amusing, but conveyed this way, it is not accurate. The famous "Eureka!" was pronounced not in connection with the discovery of Archimedes' law, as is often said, but in connection with the law of the specific gravity of metals - a discovery that also belongs to the Syracusan scientist and the detailed details of which are found in Vitruvius.

They say that one day Heron, the ruler of Syracuse, approached Archimedes. He ordered to check whether the weight of the golden crown corresponded to the weight of the gold allocated for it. To do this, Archimedes made two ingots, one of gold, the other of silver, each of the same weight as the crown.

Then he put them one by one in a vessel with water and noted how much its level had risen. Having lowered the crown into the vessel, Archimedes established that its volume exceeded the volume of the ingot. Thus the master’s dishonesty was proven.

A curious comment is from Cicero, the great orator of antiquity, who saw the “Archimedean sphere” - a model showing the movement of heavenly bodies around the Earth: “This Sicilian possessed a genius that, it would seem, human nature cannot achieve.”

And finally, Archimedes was not only a great scientist, he was also a man passionate about mechanics. He tests and creates a theory of five mechanisms known in his time and called "simple mechanisms." These are a lever (“Give me a fulcrum,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the Earth”), a wedge, a block, an endless screw and a winch. Archimedes is often credited with inventing the endless screw, but it is possible that he only improved the hydraulic screw that served the Egyptians in draining swamps.

Subsequently, these mechanisms were widely used in different countries of the world. Interestingly, an improved version of the water-lifting machine could be found at the beginning of the 20th century in a monastery located on Valaam, one of the northern Russian islands. Today, the Archimedes screw is used, for example, in an ordinary meat grinder.

The invention of the endless screw led him to another important invention, even if it became commonplace - the invention of the bolt, constructed from a screw and a nut.

To those of his fellow citizens who would have considered such inventions insignificant, Archimedes presented decisive proof to the contrary on the day when, by ingeniously adjusting a lever, a screw and a winch, he found a means, to the surprise of onlookers, of launching a heavy galley that had run aground, with all its crew and cargo.

He gave even more convincing evidence in 212 BC. During the defense of Syracuse against the Romans during the Second Punic War, Archimedes designed several war machines that allowed the townspeople to repel the attacks of the superior Romans for almost three years. One of them was a system of mirrors, with the help of which the Egyptians were able to burn the Roman fleet. This feat of his, which Plutarch, Polybius and Titus told Livy, of course, aroused more sympathy among ordinary people than the calculation of the number “pi” - another feat of Archimedes, very useful in our time for students of mathematics.

Archimedes died during the siege of Syracuse; he was killed by a Roman soldier at a time when the scientist was absorbed in searching for a solution to the problem he had set himself.

It is curious that, having conquered Syracuse, the Romans never became the owners of the works of Archimedes. Only many centuries later they were discovered by European scientists. That is why Plutarch, who was one of the first to describe the life of Archimedes, mentioned with regret that the scientist did not leave a single work.

Plutarch writes that Archimedes died at a very old age. A slab with the image of a ball and a cylinder was installed on his grave. It was seen by Cicero, who visited Sicily 137 years after the death of the scientist. Only in the 16th-17th centuries were European mathematicians finally able to realize the significance of what was done by Archimedes two thousand years before them.

He left numerous disciples. A whole generation of followers, enthusiasts, who, like the teacher, were eager to prove their knowledge with concrete conquests, rushed to the new path opened by him.

The first of these students was the Alexandrian Ctesibius, who lived in the 2nd century BC. Archimedes' mechanical inventions were in full swing when Ctesibius added to them the invention of the gear wheel.

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