Archimedes
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
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Archimedes (287 BC-212 BC) was a Greek scientist. He was an inventor, an astronomer, and a mathematician. He was born in the town of Syracuse in Sicily in what is now Italy. He was very famous during his life and he may be one of the most clever people who have ever lived. He is now said to be one of the most important scientists and the greatest mathematician of the ancient world.
His father was Phidias, an astronomer,.and he may have been in the family of a king of Syracuse. Syracuse was a rich Greek city, on the sea shore in Sicily. When Archimedes was about ten years old, he left Syracuse to study in Alexandria, in Egypt in the school of Euclid, who was a famous mathematician. Not much is known about the personal life of Archimedes, for example, whether he was married or if he had children.
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[change] Archimedes in stories (legends)
There are many stories told about Archimedes. Some of them may be true, but many of them may be untrue, or only partly true.
The best known saying of Archimedes was that if he was given a long enough lever and a place to stand, he could move the world. This is meant to show the power of the lever. The lever is perhaps the simplest machine and can help a person to do more work than they would otherwise be able to do. Archimedes was not the first person to use a lever, but he did write about how it worked and what could be done to make it work better.
Another Archimedes story is that a king thought his crown was not pure gold. Archimedes proved that the crown was made from gold mixed with silver. The value of gold was more than that of silver, so the king was deceived. Archimedes was in a bath and thought about what happens when an item is put into water. He found out that different things (such as different metals) with the same weight move out different amounts of water. This is called water displacement and the different metals have different density. When he had this idea, he jumped out of the bath and ran with no clothes on through the streets of the town, shouting "Eureka!" - which means "I have found it"
[change] Archimedes the scientist
Archimedes is also well known for being the first person to understand statics, which is a part of the study of physics and is to do with loads that do not move, for example in buildings or bridges. He also understood and wrote about what happens when things float in liquids which is called buoyancy. He discovered, that is found out, how many things work and wrote down the new rules and laws that he found.
[change] Archimedes, the inventor and engineer
Archimedes is also famous as an inventor because he made new tools and machines. For example, he made a machine to lift water that could be used by farmers to bring water to their crops. This is still called the Archimedes' Screw.
Archimedes probably also invented a machine to measure distance, an odometer. A cart was built with wheels that turned four hundred times in one mile. A pin on the wheel would hit a 400-tooth gear, so it turned once for every mile. This gear would then make a small stone fall into a cup. At the end of a journey one could count the number of stones in the cup to find the distance.
Archimedes also made a machine by which one person could pull a large ship with just one rope. This was the compound pulley. This is an important machine even today.
[change] Archimedes at war
He also invented or made many machines used in war, for example he made better catapults. This was during the Punic Wars, which were between Rome in what is now Italy and the city of Carthage in what is now North Africa. For many years he helped stop the Roman army from attacking Syracuse, his city. One war machine was called the "claw of Archimedes", or the "iron hand". It was used to defend the city from attacks by ships. Ancient writers said that it was a kind of crane with a hook that lifted ships out of the water and caused their destruction.
Another story about Archimedes is that he burned Roman ships from far away using many mirrors and the light from the sun. This is perhaps possible, but it is perhaps more likely that this was done with flaming missiles from a catapult.
After many years the Roman army took the city of Syracuse. One of the soldiers killed Archimedes, who was then an old man. The soldiers had perhaps been told to catch Archimedes alive, so it may have been a mistake. The story is that Archimedes was killed while drawing a mathematical diagram in the sand. He was so busy with his drawing that he did not see the soldier behind him. His famous last words were, “Don’t disturb my circles!”
[change] Tributes to Archimedes
Archimedes is thought to be so important as a mathematician that scientists have honoured him:
- A large hole or crater on the moon is named after Archimedes
- Some mountains on the moon are called the Montes Archimedes.
