7 Archimedes 7

Archimedes

(b. c. 290–280 BCE, Syracuse, Sicily [now in Italy]—d. 212/211 BCE,
Syracuse)

T

he most famous mathematician of ancient Greece,
Archimedes is especially important for his discovery
of the relation between the surface and volume of a sphere
and its circumscribing cylinder and for his formulation of
a hydrostatic principle (known as Archimedes’ principle).
As an inventor he is known for various ingenious (and
perhaps mythical) optical and mechanical devices, includ-
ing a device for raising water, still used in developing
countries, known as the Archimedes screw.
Archimedes probably spent some time in Egypt early
in his career, but he resided for most of his life in Syracuse,
the principal Greek city-state in Sicily, where he was on inti-
mate terms with its king, Hieron II. Archimedes published
his works in the form of correspondence with the princi-
pal mathematicians of his time, including the Alexandrian
scholars Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene. He
played an important role in the defense of Syracuse against
the siege laid by the Romans in 213 BCE by constructing war
machines so effective that they long delayed the capture of
the city. When Syracuse eventually fell to the Roman general
Marcus Claudius Marcellus in the autumn of 212 or spring
of 211 BCE, Archimedes was killed in the sack of the city.
Far more details survive about the life of Archimedes
than about any other ancient scientist, but they are largely
anecdotal, reflecting the impression that his mechanical
genius made on the popular imagination. Thus, he is cred-
ited with inventing the Archimedes screw, and he is
supposed to have made two “spheres” that Marcellus took
back to Rome—one a star globe and the other a device
(the details of which are uncertain) for mechanically