Archimedes Accomplishments

Archimedes was born in syracuse in 187 BC. he was the son on the astronomer and mathematician Phidias. Not a lot is known of Archimedes early life or family. Some people think that archimedes was related to hiero II, the king of syracuse. In the third century BC Syracuse was a large hub for trade and communication. When in Syracuse as a kid Archimedes became curious and adept. Archimedes learned a lot from his teachers in Syracuse but soon he found there was more knowledge to be found in Egipt. So in 331 BC he traveled to Alexandria, a place of knowledge and scholarship.
King Hiero had commissioned a new royal crown for which he provided solid gold to the goldsmith. When the crown arrived, King Hiero was suspicious that the goldsmith only used some of the gold, kept the rest for himself and added silver to make the crown the correct weight. Archimedes was asked to determine whether or not the crown was pure gold without harming it in the process. Archimedes was perplexed but found inspiration while taking a bath. He noticed that the full bath overflowed when he lowered himself into it, and suddenly realized that he could measure the crown's volume by the amount of water it displaced. He knew that since he could measure the crown's volume, all he had to do was discover its weight in order to calculate its density and hence its

The historian Polybius recorded that Archimedes now made such extensive preparations, both within the city and also to guard against an attack from the sea, and that every move of the enemy could be retaliated against instantly by a counter move: ”huge beams were suddenly projected at the [Roman] ships from the walls, which sank some of them with great weights plunging down from on high; others were seized at the prow by iron claws….drawn straight up into the air, and then plunged stern foremost into the depths…. with great destruction of the fighting men on board, who perished in the