Date of birth: 287-2 12.
Celebrity title: the greatest mathematician and scientist produced by ancient Greek civilization
Celebrity country: Greece
Related introduction:
No one has made such a great contribution to the progress of mankind except the great Newton and the great Einstein. Even Newton and Einstein used to draw wisdom and inspiration from him. He is "the ideal embodiment of the combination of theoretical genius and experimental genius", and he is Archimedes of Syracuse.
Archimedes' life
Archimedes (287-2 12 BC) was born in a small village near Syracuse, Greece. He was born into a noble family, and was related to King Hilong of Syracuse, and his family was very rich. Archimedes's father was an astronomer and mathematician, knowledgeable and humble. Influenced by his family, Archimedes became interested in mathematics, astronomy, especially ancient Greek geometry. When he was just eleven years old, with the help of his relationship with the royal family, he was sent to study in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria, located at the mouth of the Nile, was one of the centers of cultural trade at that time. There are magnificent museums, libraries and talented people here, which are praised as "the capital 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 great contributions to his later scientific career. In 2 12 BC, Roman troops invaded Syracuse, and Archimedes was killed by Roman soldiers at the age of 75. Archimedes' body is buried in Sicily, and the tombstone is engraved with a figure of a cylinder engraved with a ball to commemorate his outstanding contribution to geometry. Archimedes' achievements
Archimedes is undoubtedly the greatest mathematician and scientist produced by ancient Greek civilization. His outstanding contributions in many scientific fields earned him the high respect of his contemporaries.
Archimedes worked out the areas and volumes of parabolic bows, spirals and circles, as well as the volumes of complex geometric bodies such as ellipsoids and paraboloids. In the process of deriving these formulas, he skillfully used the "exhaustive method", which is what we call the method of gradually approaching the limit today, so he is recognized as the originator of calculus calculation. In this way, he also estimated that the value of ∏ was between and got the solution of cubic equation. Facing the tedious numerical representation in ancient Greece, Archimedes put forward an important method for calculating grades and used it to solve many mathematical problems. Archimedes made the most outstanding achievements in mechanics, mainly focusing on statics and hydrostatics. In the process of studying machinery, he discovered the lever principle and used this principle to design and manufacture many machines. He discovered the law of buoyancy in the process of studying floating bodies, which is also known as Archimedes principle.
Archimedes also made outstanding achievements in astronomy. He designed some balls and connected them with strings and sticks to imitate the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars, and made them rotate by water power. In this way, solar and lunar eclipses can be vividly displayed. Archimedes thought that the earth was spherical and revolved around the sun, which was earlier than Copernicus' Heliocentrism 1800 years. Limited by the conditions at that time, he did not make a thorough and systematic study on this issue. But it is remarkable to put forward such an opinion as early as the third century BC. Archimedes has many works. As a mathematician, he wrote many mathematical works, such as about spheres and cylinders, about cones and spheres, about parabola quadrature, about spirals and so on. As a mechanic, he wrote many mechanical works, such as On the Balance of Flat Plate, On Floating Body, On Lever, On Center of Gravity and so on. In the book On the Balance of Flat Plates, he systematically demonstrated the lever principle. When discussing floating bodies, he demonstrated the law of floating bodies.
Archimedes is not only brilliant in theory, but also an engineer with practical spirit. He designed and manufactured many institutions and machines in his life. In addition to the lever system, it is worth mentioning that there are weight lifting pulleys, irrigation machines, water pumps and military projectors. The water pump, known as Archimedes' water lifting screw, was invented to drain water from the cabin of a big ship. The water pump can be carried to a high place through the screw handle, which has been widely used in Egypt and is the predecessor of modern screw pump. "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the earth."
Archimedes is not only a theorist, but also a practitioner. Throughout his life, he was keen on applying his scientific discoveries to practice, thus combining the two. In Egypt around 1500 BC, people used levers to lift heavy objects, but people didn't know why. Archimedes devoted himself to this phenomenon and discovered the lever principle.
King Hennon always doubted 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 can't be realized." You'd better help me tow that big boat on the coast. " This ship was built by King Henon for the king of Egypt. It is big and heavy, and has been stranded on the coast for many days because it can't move. Archimedes readily promised. Archimedes designed a complicated lever pulley system to be installed on the ship, and handed one end of the rope to King Henon. King Hennon gently pulled the rope, and a miracle appeared. The ship moved slowly and finally sank into the sea. The king was surprised and admired Archimedes very much. He sent someone to post a notice saying, "In the future, no matter what Archimedes says, you must believe him."
Mystery of golden crown
King Hennon asked the goldsmith to make a pure gold crown for him. After it was done, the king suspected that the craftsman had mixed silver into the crown, but the crown was as heavy as the pure gold given to the goldsmith at the beginning. Did the craftsman play tricks? The problem of trying to test the authenticity without destroying the crown not only stumped the king, but also made the ministers look at each other. Later, the king gave it to Archimedes. Archimedes thought hard about many methods, but all failed. One day, he went to the bathhouse to take a bath. Sitting in the bathtub, he saw the water overflowing and felt his body being gently pulled up. He suddenly realized that he jumped out of the bathtub and went straight to the palace without clothes on. He shouted "Eureka" and "Frica" all the way. It turns out that if the crown is put into water, the amount of water discharged is not equal to the same weight of gold, and it must be mixed with other metals. This is the famous law of buoyancy, that is, an object immersed in a liquid is subjected to upward buoyancy, and its size is equal to the weight of the liquid discharged by the object. Later, this law was named Archimedes principle.
Patriot Archimedes
In his later years, the Roman army invaded Syracuse, and Archimedes instructed his compatriots to make many weapons for attack and defense. When Marcelle Sai, the leader of the invading army, led a group of people to attack the city, he designed a trebuchet to beat the enemy out of the water. His crane with iron claws can lift the enemy ship, turn it upside down and throw it into the depths of the sea. Legend has it that he also led the people of Syracuse to make a huge concave mirror, which focused the sunlight on the approaching enemy ship and made it burn. Roman soldiers have been frightened by such frequent blows. They are afraid of everything. As soon as they saw the rope or wood thrown from the city, they exclaimed "Archimedes is coming" and then ran around. Roman troops were kept out of the city for three years. Finally, in 2 12 BC, the Romans took advantage of the slight relaxation of the ancient city of Syracuse to attack on a large scale and break into the city. At this time, Archimedes was studying a profound math problem. A Roman soldier broke into the house and trampled on his drawing with his foot. Archimedes argued with him angrily. The cruel soldier refused to listen, only to see a brilliant scientific superstar fall with a wave of his hand.