Except for the great Newton and the great Einstein, no one has made such a great contribution to the progress of mankind as he did. Even Newton and Einstein drew wisdom and inspiration from him. He is "the ideal incarnation of theoretical genius and experimental genius in one person", he is Archimedes of Syracuse.

Life of Archimedes

Archimedes (Archimedes, about 287-212 BC) was born in a small village near Syracuse, Greece. He was born into a noble family and was related to King Hieron of Syracuse, and his family was very wealthy. Archimedes' father was an astronomer and mathematician, knowledgeable and humble. Influenced by his family, Archimedes had a strong interest in mathematics, astronomy, especially the geometry of ancient Greece since he was a child. When he was just eleven years old, with the help of his relationship with the royal family, he was sent to the Egyptian city of Alexandria to study. Alexandria, located at the mouth of the Nile River, was one of the centers of cultural trade at that time. There are majestic museums, libraries, and talented people here, and it is known as the "City of Wisdom" by the world. Archimedes studied and lived here for many years and had close contacts with many scholars. He absorbed the excellent cultural heritage of the East and ancient Greece and made significant contributions in his subsequent scientific career. In 212 BC, the ancient Roman army invaded Syracuse, and Archimedes was killed by Roman soldiers at the age of seventy-five. Archimedes' body was buried in Sicily, and the tombstone was engraved with the shape of a sphere inscribed in a cylinder to commemorate his outstanding contributions to geometry. Archimedes' achievements

Archimedes is undisputedly the greatest mathematician and scientist produced by ancient Greek civilization. His outstanding contributions in many scientific fields have earned him Highly respected by his contemporaries.

Archimedes obtained the area and volume of parabolic arcs, spirals, circles, and the volumes of complex geometric bodies such as ellipsoids and paraboloids. In the process of deriving these formulas, he skillfully used the "exhaustion method", which is what we call today the method of gradually approximating limits, and is therefore recognized as the originator of calculus calculations. He also used this method to estimate that the value of ∏ is between and , and obtained the solution to the cubic equation. Faced with the complicated numerical representation methods of ancient Greece, Archimedes proposed a set of important grade-by-level calculation methods and used it to solve many mathematical problems. Archimedes' achievements in mechanics are the most outstanding, and these achievements are mainly concentrated in statics and hydrostatics. In the process of studying machinery, he discovered the lever principle and used this principle to design and manufacture many machines. While studying floating bodies, he discovered the law of buoyancy, also known as Archimedes' law.

Archimedes also had outstanding achievements in astronomy. He designed some round balls, connected them with strings and wooden sticks to imitate the movement of the sun, moon and stars, and used the power of water to make them rotate. In this way, solar and lunar eclipses can be vividly displayed. Archimedes believed that the earth was spherical and revolved around the sun. This view was 1,800 years earlier than Copernicus's "heliocentric theory". Due to the conditions at the time, he did not conduct in-depth and systematic research on this issue. But it is remarkable that such an opinion was put forward as early as the third century BC. Archimedes wrote many works. As a mathematician, he wrote mathematical works such as "On Spheres and Cylinders", "On Cleaved Cones and Spheres", "Quarters of Parabolas", and "On Spirals". As a mechanics scientist, he has written such mechanical works as "On the Balance of Flat Plate", "On Floating Bodies", "On Lever" and "On Center of Gravity". In "On the Balance of a Tablet" he systematically demonstrated the principle of leverage. In On Floating Bodies, he demonstrated the law of floating bodies.

Archimedes not only made brilliant achievements in theory, but was also an engineer with a rich practical spirit. He designed and manufactured many mechanisms and machines throughout his life. In addition to lever systems, it is worth mentioning that there are weightlifting pulleys, irrigation machines, water lifters, and military projectors. The water-lifting machine known as the Archimedean screw was invented to remove water from the holds of large ships.

The water pump can be transported to high places using a screw handle. It has been widely used in Egypt and is the predecessor of modern screw pumps. "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the earth"

Archimedes was not only a theorist but also a practitioner. Throughout his life, he was passionate about applying his scientific discoveries to practice, thus combining the two. . In Egypt, around 1,500 BC, people used levers to lift heavy objects, but people didn't know the reason. Archimedes studied this phenomenon intently and discovered the lever principle.

King Hernon has always been dubious about Archimedes' theory. He asked Archimedes to turn them into living examples to convince people. Archimedes said: "Give me a fulcrum and I can move the earth." The king said: "I'm afraid this won't be possible. You'd better come and help me drag the big ship on the coast." This ship is Hernon. It was made for the king of Egypt. It was large and heavy. Because it could not be moved, it had been stranded on the coast for many days. Archimedes agreed. Archimedes designed a complex system of levers and pulleys that were installed on the ship and handed one end of the rope to King Hernon. King Hernon gently pulled the rope, and a miracle happened. The ship slowly moved and finally descended into the sea. The king was surprised and admired Archimedes very much, and sent someone to post a notice: "From now on, no matter what Archimedes says, you must believe him."

The Mystery of the Golden Crown

King Hernon asked the goldsmith to make him a pure gold crown. After it was completed, the king suspected that the craftsman had mixed silver into the gold crown. However, the gold crown was indeed as heavy as the pure gold that was originally given to the goldsmith. In the end, the craftsman Did you do any mischief? Wanting to test the authenticity without destroying the crown, this problem not only stumped the king, but also made the ministers look at each other. Later, the king gave it to Archimedes. Archimedes tried hard to think of many ways, but they all failed. One day, he went to the bathhouse to take a bath. As he sat in the tub, he saw the water overflowing and felt his body being gently pulled up. Suddenly he had a sudden enlightenment, jumped out of the bath, and ran straight to the palace without even bothering to put on his clothes, shouting "Fureka" (Fureka, I know) all the way. It turned out that he had thought that if the crown was put in If the amount of water discharged after being immersed in water is not equal to the amount of water discharged by gold of the same weight, it must be mixed with other metals. This is the famous law of buoyancy, which states that an object immersed in a liquid is subject to an upward buoyant force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the object. Later, this law was named Archimedes' law.

Archimedes the Patriot

In Archimedes’ later years, the Roman army invaded Syracuse. Archimedes guided his compatriots to create many offensive and defensive weapons. . When Marcellus, the leader of the invading army, led his troops to attack the city, he designed a trebuchet that beat the enemy to tears. The iron claw crane he built could lift and invert enemy ships and throw them into the depths of the sea. Legend has it that he also led the people of Syracuse to make a large concave mirror to focus sunlight on approaching enemy ships, causing them to burn. The Roman soldiers were frightened by these frequent blows, and the trees and grass were all in disarray. As soon as they saw ropes or logs being thrown from the city, they exclaimed "Archimedes is coming" and ran away with their heads in their hands. The Roman army was held back from the city for three years. Finally, in 212 BC, the Romans took advantage of the slight laxity in the defense of the ancient city of Syracuse and launched a massive attack into the city. At this time, Archimedes was concentrating on studying a profound mathematical problem. A Roman soldier broke in and trampled on the figure he had drawn. Archimedes argued angrily with him. The cruel soldier was not willing to listen. He was the only one who saw him. With a wave of the knife, a bright scientific star fell.