Archimedes and Fluid Mechanics
Fluid mechanics studies the behaviour of liquids and gases at rest or in the motion. It can be divided into 3 different areas; fluid statics research on fluids at rest, fluid kinematics that investigates fluids in motion, and fluid dynamics that analyses the effect of forces on fluid motion. The second and especially the third areas are greatly used on both solved and partly solved problems. The study of fluid mechanics is significant to engineers; because the main interest of engineers is to solve industrial problems in the applications of fluid mechanics. [1][2]
The early works on fluid mechanics date back to ancient Greece where Archimedes conducted research on fluid statics and buoyancy. He formulated his famous law; the Archimedes' Principle, which was published at ‘On Floating Bodies’. The work is considered to be the first major work on fluid mechanics. Later on, rapid advancement on the subject carried on with various works; Leonardo da Vinci’s method of observations and experiments, Evangelista Torricelli’s invention of the barometer, Isaac Newton’s examination of viscosity, Blaise Pascal’s researches on hydrostatics, formulation of Pascal's law, and Daniel Bernoulli’s the introduction of mathematical fluid dynamics in Hydrodynamica (1738).[2]
Archimedes is considered to be the father of fluid statics due to be the first one who made research on the field. He was born at 287 BC in Syracuse- coast of Sicily, where he spent most of his life. He was the son of an astronomer (Pheidias) who calculated ratio of diameters of the Moon and the Sun. Heracleides (his friend) wrote the life of Archimedes which has been lost, black the details of his life out. For example, it is unknown whether if he eve...
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...ere are nothing left except a number of stories, which, although not literally accurate, but help us to conception of the personality of one of the greatest mathematician of antiquity which we would not willingly have changed. The inventions and formulas built the frame of fluid mechanics and even today these are the basis of contemporary science. We can surely say that Archimedes is one of the greatest scientists of all times.
References
[1]The Works of Archimedes , T. L. Heath (Cambridge, 1897)
[2] Fluid Mechanics, 4th Ed., Pijush K. Kindu,Ira M. Kohen(Academic Press, 2010)
[3]Archimedes,ht Center of Gravity,and the First Law of Mechanics, 2nd Ed., Andre K.T. Assis (Canada, 2010)
[4]http://web.archive.org/web/20090224221137/http://math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Crown/bilancetta.html
[5] http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Claw/illustrations.html
They just forgot to mention the other effects of fluids in nature. “The influence of the fluid on a body moving through it depends not only on the body’s velocity but also on the velocity of the fluid,” this is called relative velocity ( ). The relative velocity of a body in a fluid has an effect on the magnitude of the acting forces. For example, as a long distance runner is running into a head wind, the force of the fluid is very strong. If the runner is running with the help of a tail wind, the current’s force is reduced and may even be unnoticeable.
There he inspired many students and tutored them to become professionals in the medical field. Many of these students included Fabricius ab Aquapendente (gave the first clear description of the semi lunar valves of the veins, which later provided many people with a crucial point in his famous argument for circulation of the blood) and Volcher Coiter (described human embryology as well as the comparative osteology of animals and illustrated his own work.... ... middle of paper ...
Bragg, Melvyn, On Giants' Shoulders: Great Scientists and Their Discoveries from Archimedes to DNA. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Ross, Danice, Re-Ann Sabubu, and Era Manitas. "Applications - Bernoulli's Principle." Bernoulli's Principle. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
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in 212 B.C. at the age of 75 in Syracuse. It is said that he was killed
Introduction to Aerodynamics Aerodynamics is the study of the motion of fluids in the gas state and bodies in motion relative to the fluid/air. In other words, the study of aerodynamics is the study of fluid dynamics specifically relating to air or the gas state of matter. When an object travels through fluid/air there are two types of flow characteristics that happen, laminar and turbulent. Laminar flow is a smooth, steady flow over a smooth surface and it has little disturbance. Intuition would lead to the belief that this type of air flow would be desirable.
It is a generally accepted fact that Aristotle's physics and astronomy were the weakest of his areas of study. He made discoveries and developed theories in biology, ethics, and drama that still hold a great deal of importance in those fields today. However, many of his theories and hypotheses were not disproved unitl the nineteenth century and his original concept of a uniform and consistant flow of time was accepted by Newton and still has its place in physics today. We really cannot discount the scientific contributions of a man whose ideas have survived for over 2000 years.
One source of this interest in method was ancient mathematics. The thirteen books of Euclid's Elements was a model of knowledge and deductive method. But how had all this been achieved? Archimedes had made many remarkable discoveries. How had he come to make these discoveries? The method in which the results were pr...
Archimedes was born in 287 BC in Syracuse, a Greek seaport colony in Sicily. Archimedes’ father was Phidias. He was an astronomer; this is all we know about his father and we learn this from Archimedes’ work, The Sandreckoner. Archimedes was educated in Alexandria, Egypt. Archimedes’ friend, Heracleides, wrote a biography about him, but this work was lost. Some authors report that he visited Egypt and there invented a tool known as Archimedes' screw. This is a pump, still used today in parts of the world. It is likely that, when he was a young man, Archimedes studied with the followers of Euclid. Many of his ideas seem to correspond with the mathematics developed there. This speculation is much more certain because he sent his results to Alexandria with personal messages. He considered Conon of Samos, one of the greatest achieving mathematicians at Alexandria, both for his abilities as a mathematician and he also respected him as a close friend.
One of the most well known contributors to math from Greece would be Archimedes. He
On a more scientific note I am interested in mechanics of fluids. This interest was enforced last year when I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on fluid mechanics at P&G. At the conference I greatly expanded my knowledge regarding the physical aspect of fluids and their properties. In last year's AS course we have met a topic in this field. I will be applying ideas and knowledge gathered from last year for this investigation.
Quest.nasa.gov, (2014). NASA Quest > Aerospace Team Online. [online] Available at: http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/planetary/archimedes.html [Accessed 28 Nov. 2014].
Archimedes was known for the creation of the Antikythera mechanism, which was the first known computer model.
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