1. Defend the motherland

In 218 BC, a war broke out between Syracuse and the Roman Empire. When Archimedes was old, he was the supreme commander of the Roman army. Marcellus led the Roman army to surround the city where he lived and also captured the harbor.

Although Archimedes did not agree with war, he had to do his duty to defend his motherland. Archimedes saw that his country was in danger, and his sense of responsibility to protect the country prompted him to rise up to fight the enemy. So Archimedes racked his brains and worked day and night to invent weapons to defend himself against the enemy.

2. Catapults and cranes

Archimedes used the principle of leverage to create a trebuchet called a catapult, which could throw large rocks at the Roman army's warships. , or use a transmitter to shoot spears and stones at Roman soldiers. Any enemy close to the city wall cannot escape his flying stones or javelins... Archimedes also invented a variety of weapons to stop Rome. The advance of the army.

According to some later records, he built a huge crane that could lift enemy warships into the air and then drop them so hard that they shattered on the water.

3. Mirror focuses light.

The light and heat of the sun make everything on the earth grow, and it contains endless energy. So, who first thought of gathering solar energy and utilizing it.

The ancient Greek city of Syracuse was invaded by the Roman army. The Roman army sailed majestically to the port of Syracuse on a warship with sails spread. The young men and soldiers of the ancient city of Syracuse went to the front line together. Only the elderly, women and children were left in the city, which was in an extremely critical moment.

At this moment, old Archimedes stood up again for his motherland. He asked the women and children to come to the coast together with a mirror in their own home, and pointed the mirror at the strong sunlight, focusing the light on the main sail of the enemy ship.

The reflections of thousands of mirrors gathered at one point on the sail, and the sail burned. 7 The fire took advantage of the wind and burned more and more. The Romans did not know the details and thought that Archimedes had invented it again. New weapons. He retreated in panic.

4. Death of Archimedes

In 212 BC, the Roman army entered Syracuse. Marcellus, the commander-in-chief of the Roman army, issued an order: "Capture Archimedes alive." After the defeat of the war, Archimedes adopted a scholar's detached and indifferent attitude towards reality and devoted himself to the study of mathematical problems. Research.

One day, Archimedes was sitting next to the incomplete stone wall and drawing a geometric figure on the sand. A Roman soldier ordered Archimedes to leave. He gestured arrogantly and said, "Don't break my circle!"

The Roman soldier was furious and immediately stabbed him with a knife. Killed the ancient scientist Archimedes.

When the news came that Archimedes had been killed, the most regrettable thing was Marcellus, the commander of the Roman army, who held a grand funeral for Archimedes.

5. The Story of the Golden Crown

King Hiero of Syracuse asked a goldsmith to make a crown of pure gold. He suspected that it contained silver, so he asked Archimedes to identify it. one time. When he entered the bathtub to take a bath, the water overflowed out of the basin, and he realized that although objects of different materials have the same weight, the water drained away will not be equal due to different volumes. Based on this principle, we can determine whether the crown is adulterated.

Archimedes jumped up with joy and ran home naked, shouting: "Eureka! Eureka!" (Greek means "I found it"). The basic principle of hydrostatics, that is, the weight of an object reduced in a liquid is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced, was summarized in his famous book "On Floating Bodies" and later became famous as "Archimedes' Principle".

Extended information

Archimedes related honors:

Master of Mathematics

Archimedes also had great brilliance in mathematics Brilliant achievements, especially in geometry.

Archimedes' mathematical thoughts contain calculus. Archimedes's "Methodology" is "very close to modern calculus". There is advanced research on "infinity" in mathematics, throughout The whole article is about how to apply mathematical models to physics.

What he lacked was the concept of limits, but the essence of his thought extended to the field of infinitesimal analysis that became mature in the 17th century, foreshadowing the birth of calculus.

Archimedes effectively used the concept of convergence proposed by Euclid. He used the "approximation method" to calculate the area of ??the sphere, the volume of the sphere, the area of ??the parabola, and the area of ??the ellipse. Later mathematicians developed the modern "calculus" based on this "approximation method". Archimedes also used the secant circle method to find the value of π between 3.14163 and 3.14286.

In addition, he calculated that the surface area of ??a sphere is four times the area of ??the largest circle inscribed in it, and derived that the volume of a sphere inscribed in a cylinder is two-thirds of the volume of the cylinder. This theorem is engraved on his tombstone. .

Archimedes studied the properties of spiral curves. The current "Archimedes Spiral" curve is named in honor of him. In addition, in his book "The Sand Counter", he created a method of counting large numbers, which simplified the way of counting.

Archimedes’ geometric works are the pinnacle of Greek mathematics. He harmoniously combined Euclid's strict reasoning method with Plato's bright and rich imagination, achieving a state of perfection and beauty, thus "making it possible for the subsequent leaders of Kepler, Cavalieri, Fermat, Newton, The calculus that Leibniz and others continued to cultivate was becoming increasingly perfect.”

Astronomical Research

Archimedes developed a goniometer for astronomical measurements and made an instrument for measuring the angle of the sun to the earth.

Archimedes also used water power to build a planetarium, with the sun, moon, stars, and five planets on the sphere. According to records, this planetarium not only operates accurately, it can even predict when lunar and solar eclipses will occur.

Archimedes also believed that the Earth might be round. In his later years, Archimedes began to doubt the geocentric theory and speculated that the earth might revolve around the sun. This conjecture was not discussed until the time of Copernicus.

Archimedes’ famous saying:

1. Give me a fulcrum and I will move the earth.

2. Even for a monarch, there is no shortcut to the study of knowledge.

3. The most precious thing in this world is not "cannot get" and "lost", but "already have".

4. If rational analysis cannot support your decision, let your heart make the decision!

5. The biggest worry in life is not choice, but not knowing what you want, and not knowing who you want to have around you at the end of your life!

Baidu Encyclopedia-Archimedes