Famous Mathematician
ANSWER
Famous Mathematician
Famous Mathematician
Archimedes (c. 287-212 BC)
Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily, Magna Graecia. Not much is known about his life, other than his works and inventions. He spent time in Egypt early in his life but lived for most of his life in Syracuse, Sicily (Hirshfeld, 2009). Archimedes had a good relationship with king Hieron II and played an important role in the defense of the city against a siege from the Romans in 213 BCE. He constructed war machines that were effective in delaying the capture of Syracuse (Hirshfeld, 2009). Eventually, the city fell to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a Roman General, in 212 BCE, and Archimedes was killed in the city.
Archimedes is best known for his contribution to the early understanding of physics, discovering and explaining how levers work and discovering how water is displaced by a submerged object (Heath, 2002). Archimedes discovered water displacement while taking a bath. He watched how water was sloshing up to the top of the tub and was so excited that he ran through the streets naked shouting “Eureka!” (Hirshfeld, 2009). Archimedes was able to estimate the value of pi to a remarkably precise value. He also calculated the area underneath a parabolic curve (Heath, 2002).
The inventions and discoveries of Archimedes were truly amazing because, in his calculations, he used techniques that were close to ideas from modern calculus that were invented more than 1800 years later. A good example of this is the calculation of pi. Archimedes calculated pi and area under curves by estimating them using straight-edged polygons, adding more refined shapes so that he could get closer to the desired value (Hirshfeld, 2009). This method is very similar to the modern idea of infinite limits. This shows that Archimedes was almost 2,000 years ahead of his time.
References
Heath, T. L. (2002). The works of Archimedes. Courier Corporation.
Hirshfeld, A. (2009). Eureka man: The life and legacy of Archimedes. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
