Who was Archimedes

Archimedes was a great mathematician and scientist who lived more than two thousand years ago. He was born in 287 B.C., in the ancient city-state of Syracuse on the island of Sicily. At that time Sicily was a Greek island, but now it is part of Italy. Many stories are told about the way Archimedes made his great inventions and scientific discoveries. Perhaps it did not all happen exactly the way the stories say. Probably Archimedes, like every other great scientist, had to work long and hard to make his inventions and discoveries.

But that does not matter, because the stories are interesting. Here arcsome of them: Once the Romans tried to invade Syracuse from the sea. As their ships neared the coast, they suddenly burst into flame. Archimedes had set up mirrors on the coast of Syracuse to catch the sun's rays and reflect them against the Roman ships. The hot rays set the ships on fire. Archimedes was a friend of King Hiero of Syracuse, and often solved problems for the king. Once the king suspected that a new crown was not made with pure gold. He asked Archimedes to find out if the crown was pure gold. Archimedes thought and thought about how he could find the answer. One day as he was bathing in one of the public baths in Syracuse, he suddenly thought of the answer.

He jumped from the tub shouting, "Eureka, Eureka!" which means "I have found it, I have found it!" He was so excited he ran home without putting his clothes on. What Archimedes had found was a great scientific law. Among other things, it helped to answer the king's question, but scientists have used it ever since. An important invention of Archimedes was the water screw. This was used to pump water, or to raise it from one level to another. The water screw was really nothing but a large, long screw encased in a wooden pipe.

When the handle on top of the screw was turned, the water was forced up into the pipe, and finally flowed from the top of it. Archimedes was one of the first great mathematicians. Much of the work he did is important to us today. He learned how to measure circles, spheres, cylinders and other figures. When he was an old man, Archimedes asked that a cylinder and a sphere be carved on his tombstone after he died. The Romans conquered Syracuse in 212 B.C. During the battle Archimedes was sitting in the public square drawing mathematical figures in the dirt. The Roman general, Claudius Marcellus, had given orders that the soldiers were not to harm Archimedes. But a soldier seeing Archimedes did not know him, and killed him with his sword. The Roman general buried Archimedes with great honor and remembered the scientist's request for his tombstone. The sphere and the cylinder were carved on the tombstone of this great scientist.