Archimedes

Archimedes (287-212 BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician, engineer, inventor, physicist, and astronomer from Syracuse. His major works include On the Sphere and Cylinder, Measurement of a Circle, On Floating Bodies, The Sand Reckoner, and The Method of Mechanical Theorems. Archimedes matters because he stands among the greatest mathematicians of antiquity, making fundamental contributions to geometry, hydrostatics, statics, and the use of infinitesimal reasoning before calculus. He is associated with the principle of buoyancy, the law of the lever, and ingenious machines used in the defense of Syracuse. Stories about Eureka and moving the earth with a lever capture his legendary status, even when embellished. His quotes endure because they express the power of mathematical insight: with the right principle and place to stand, the impossible becomes imaginable. His legend still shows how abstraction can change the physical world.

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