The Life and Discoveries of Archimedes

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The life of Archimedes impacted many people of his time because his inventions brought a new level to ancient warfare. He was also well known for being a mathematician and for his scientific writings, many of which still survive today.
Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily, and he lived to be seventy-five years old. This puts the date of his birth around 287 B.C., and the date of his death around 362 B.C. His father was an astronomer, and he may have been related to Hiero II, king of Syracuse (“Archimedes”). We do not know much about his childhood, but we do know that he studied with Euclid in Alexandria, Egypt. After his studies, he returned to Syracuse and made the many inventions that still impact us today (“Archimedes Biography”).
The discovery that Archimedes is perhaps most famous for is the Archimedes Principle. King Hiero II gave a goldsmith a certain amount of gold and asked that he make a crown from it. Once the crown was finished, the king suspected that the goldsmith had substituted some of the gold in the crown for silver. Archimedes was asked find out the truth without melting the crown to calculate its density (“Archimedes’ Principle”). When he later took a bath, Archimedes saw the water run over the edges of the tub. As he watched the water spill over, he suddenly found his answer. “Eureka!” he shouted, jumping out of the tub and running down the street without his clothes (qtd. in Gow 50). Archimedes to Hawking by Clifford A. Pickover explains it this way: “Because gold has a greater density than silver, a gold cube would be smaller than a silver cube of equal weight, causing less water to spill out of the bucket.” Archimedes could do the same thing with the crown as he did in the bath to find out the densit...

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...evealing the True Genius of Antiquity’s Greatest Scientist. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press. 2007. Print.
“Archimedes.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. November 2013. Web. 19 November 2013.
“Archimedes Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. n.d. Web. 19 November 2013.
Matters, Energy.“Did Archimedes’ Solar Powered Death Ray Exist?”. Energy Matters. 19 August 2010. Web. 18 November 2013.
“Archimedes Screw”. How Stuff Works. n.d. Web. 19 November 2013.
“File: Archimedes Screw Conceptual Diagram”. Wikimedia Commons. 24 October 2013. Web. 21 November 2013.
“The Archimedes Screw”. Thomasnet. 25 November 2013. Web. 20 November 2013.
“Archimedes’ Screw”. Princeton University. n.d Web. 19 November 2013.
“Death of Archimedes”. Death of Archimedes. n.d. Web. 16 November 2013.
“Archimedes”. Ancient Greece. n.d. Web. 16 November 2013.

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