Archimedes' most famous quote is: "Give me a foothold and I can move the earth."

Name: Archimedes

Country or Region: Greece

Discipline: Mathematician and Engineer

Invention: Founder of Theoretical Mechanics

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Archimedes Greek mathematician and engineer. He was born in Syracuse, Sicily around 287 BC and died in Syracuse around 212 BC. Archimedes, the son of an astronomer, was a great scientist and mathematician in ancient times. It was not until Newton* who appeared two thousand years later that he could be compared with him. Archimedes studied in Alexandria, where his teacher Conon had been a student of Euclid. Archimedes decided not to stay in Alexandria but to return to his hometown, which was an unusual move at the time and may have been due to his kinship with King Hero II of Syracuse. Archimedes was an aristocrat and a very independent person. He did not pray to the Egyptian royal family for support in his research work. Archimedes has the most stories about ancient scientists, and even Thales cannot compare with them. All these stories are so beautiful that it would seem cruel to ask whether they are true or reliable. To take just one example, even the story of Archimedes' forgetfulness is widely told. It is said that when he concentrated on thinking, he could not even remember whether he had eaten or not (there are similar stories about more recent mathematicians, such as Newton and Wiener*) Back to business. Legend has it that King Hero once asked his wise relative Archimedes to measure the crown just made by the goldsmith to see whether it was pure gold as the craftsman said, or a mixture mixed with silver. Archimedes was also sternly warned in advance not to damage the crown during the measurement. At first Archimedes was at a loss. Until one day while he was bathing in a full basin of water, he noticed that the water was overflowing. Suddenly a flash of thought reminded him that the volume of the overflowing water was equal to the volume of the part of his body immersed in the water. Then, if the crown is immersed in water, he can tell the volume of the crown based on the rise of the water surface. He compared the volume of the crown with the volume of an equal weight of gold. If the two volumes were equal, it proved that the crown was pure gold; if the crown was mixed with silver, the volume of the crown would be larger. When Archimedes discovered this principle of buoyancy, his excitement was indescribable. He jumped out of the bathtub and ran naked to the streets of Syracuse. He ran straight towards the imperial army and shouted "Eureka! Eureka!" (I've found it! I've found it!). From then on, this sentence became the appropriate phrase when announcing a discovery. (The story ends with the crown indeed being adulterated with some silver, and the goldsmith being sentenced to death.) Archimedes also discovered the principle of the lever. Although Stratus had already used this principle, it was Archimedes who studied the complete mathematical relationship of this principle. He pointed out that a small object far from the fulcrum will balance with a large object near the fulcrum, and pointed out that the weight of the object is inversely proportional to the distance from the fulcrum. (Thus he established "statics" and proposed the concept of center of gravity for scientific observation, indicating that he was two thousand years ahead of his time. In fact, it was not until his work was translated into Latin in 1544 that he , inspired scientists like Tivin* and Galileo* to conduct new explorations in his direction.) The lever principle explains why a large piece of rock can be pried up with an iron bar. Because the force on the far end of the iron rod (which is exactly a lever) is balanced by the force of the weight on the proximal end of the iron rod. Regarding this issue, Archimedes has another famous saying: "As long as you give me a place to stand, I can move the earth." Of course, if he has a lever and the lever has enough length and stiffness, this may not be impossible. arrive! ) Legend has it that Hero once questioned his statement, asking him if he would dare to move something astonishingly large, even if it was not as large as the entire earth.

He once ordered that Archimedes be captured alive and treated differently (this can be described as an unusually tolerant spirit in ancient times--perhaps at any time). Archimedes' relatives also received special care from him. It took too long to find Archimedes' tomb. In 75 BC, when the Roman orator Cicero was in charge of Sicily, he announced that Archimedes' tomb had been found. Since then, no trace has been lost again, although in 1965 Italian archaeologists reported the discovery of a possible tomb of Archimedes.