Archimedes inventions
| Archimedes | |
|---|---|
| Mathematician | |
| Specialty | Math, physics, engineering, astronomy |
| Born | c. BC Syracuse, Sicily Magna Graecia |
| Died | c. BC (around age 75) Syracuse |
| Nationality | Greek |
Archimedes was born in B.C.
on the island of Sicily.
Archimedes life biography summary It is reported by some authors that he visited Egypt and there invented a device now known as Archimedes' screw. The inventor Nikola Tesla praised him, saying:. Certainly he was completely familiar with the mathematics developed there, but what makes this conjecture much more certain, he knew personally the mathematicians working there and he sent his results to Alexandria with personal messages. Marcellus was reportedly angered by Archimedes' death, as he considered him a valuable scientific asset he called Archimedes "a geometrical Briareus " and had ordered that he should not be harmed.His father, Phidias, was a mathematician and an astronomer. They lived in Syracuse when Archimedes was born.
General Biography
Little is known about Archimedes and his family in the early years. He studied in Alexandria, which had been established by Alexander the Great.
This is where he grew to become a reputable scholar. He studied under Euclid, the most reputable mathematician of his time who was keen on matters relating to geometry. Archimedes died during the Second Punic war under the hands of General Marcus Claudius Marcellus after the city was captured following a two-year siege.
The Archimedes Screw
Upon returning to Syracuse, Archimedes became a close associate to King Hiero II.
The invention of the Archimedes Screw resulted when the King needed to empty rainwater from a ship. When Archimedes was called to help, he made the machine that came to be known as the Archimedes Screw.
Archimedes life story W R Laird, Archimedes among the humanists, Isis 82 , - His father, Phidias, was a mathematician and an astronomer. Archimedes' principle. Honours show.This consisted of a hollow tube that had a spiral that could be turned using a handle placed on one end. Through this machine, the King was able to empty water from the hull of one of his ships, an invention that is widely used for irrigation in different parts of the world today.
Block and Tackle Pulley
Archimedes also invented the block-and-tackle pulley that used the Leverage Principle.
It enabled sailors of his time to lift objects that would ordinarily be too heavy for them to lift.
He is famously known to have argued that it would be possible to move the earth if only you have somewhere else to stand.
The Archimedes Principle
Archimedes is widely credited for his invention on how to measure the volume of an irregular object. The invention came when Archimedes was asked to verify the purity of the gold crown that the King had made.
King Hiero was suspicious that the crown was not of pure gold as he had desired but a mixture of gold and silver.
He made this discovery while he was in the bathtub – it was then that he realized that the volume of water displaced is equivalent to the volume of his body that was submerged.
A timeline of archimedes life: The standard versions of Archimedes' life were written long after his death by Greek and Roman historians. In The Sand Reckoner , Archimedes set out to calculate a number that was greater than the grains of sand needed to fill the universe. In On spirals Archimedes defines a spiral, he gives fundamental properties connecting the length of the radius vector with the angles through which it has revolved. J G Thompson, Archimedes and continued fractions, Math.
Through this, he was able to calculate the density of the crown since he calculated the volume based on the volume of displaced water.
The Claw of Archimedes
When Syracuse was under attack by the Romans, Archimedes was tasked with the responsibility of developing a method of protecting the city from attackers. He developed the crane-like arm that had a metallic hook suspended on it to capsize ships.
When the claw was dropped, the arm moved forwards to lift the attacking ship out of the water. This device was famously known as the ship-shaker.
The Heat Ray
Archimedes invented the famous “Death Ray” during the war with the Romans. This invention involved focusing multiple mirrors toward the sun and having them reflect to the enemy ships.
Archimedes life biography for kids Archimedes also invented the block-and-tackle pulley that used the Leverage Principle. The writings of Archimedes were first collected by the Byzantine Greek architect Isidore of Miletus c. In mechanics he defined the principle of the lever and is credited with inventing the compound pulley and the hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to higher level. Archimedes' screw was turned by hand, and could also be used to transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals.This would cause them to burst into flames. This invention has, however, faced criticism from different scholars that it would not be practically viable for such an invention to work.
Archimedes also assisted greatly in the first Punic War by helping improve the power and accuracy of catapults.
Contributions to Mathematics
Archimedes invented his own numbering system to accommodate the numbers he invented as part of his studies.
He developed a method of calculating the area of different geometric figures by dividing the component into multiple rectangles that would be added together, a principle that later came to be known as the Principle of Integration.
This is used in integral calculus. Archimedes also invented differential calculus, which he used to determine the slope of tangents of lines on the figures he drew.
Archimedes life biography S H Hollingdale, Archimedes of Syracuse : a tribute on the 22 nd century of his death, Bulletin Institute of Mathematics and its Applications 25 9 , - S E Brodie, Archimedes' axioms for arc-length and area, Math. Archimedes was born c. Archimedes discusses astronomical measurements of the Earth, Sun, and Moon, as well as Aristarchus ' heliocentric model of the universe, in the Sand-Reckoner.He is also the scientist who discovered a method of calculating square roots of odd numbers when he calculated the square root of three, a principle that is called the Quadrature of the Parabola.
Through this method, Archimedes was able to prove that the area under a parabola and a straight line is 4/3 times the area of a triangle that has a height that is equal to its base.
Archimedes’ favorite works were the mathematical illustrations that contain a sphere and a cylinder that have a height equal to the diameter. He discovered that the volume and the area of the sphere is 2/3 the surface area of the sphere. This invention was inscribed on Archimedes’ grave following his death at 75 years of age.