Picture of Archimedes
Corbis-Bettmann. From photograph of sculpture in the National Museum, Naples.

Archimedes

Archimedes was a Greek mathematician and engineer who lived between 287-212 B.C. His greatest contributions are in the field of geometry, where he identified the relationship of a sphere and cylinder's volume.

Archimedes discovered the principle of the lever and the importance of the fulcrum, stating imperiously, "Give me a lever and I can move the world". He is also credited with the buoyancy principle, which gives the weight of an object floating in a liquid based on the weight of liquid the object displaces.

Legend has it that Archimedes developed war machines for Greece, such as catapults, cranes, and giant lenses which focused sunlight to burn Roman ships in the Rome-Carthage war.


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