Archimedes

Who is Archimedes?

Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, and inventor, widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. Working in the Greek city of Syracuse in Sicily, he made profound contributions to geometry, calculating close approximations of pi, deriving formulas for the areas and volumes of spheres, cylinders, and other shapes, and anticipating methods of integral calculus. He formulated the principle of buoyancy, known as Archimedes' principle, and articulated the law of the lever. He is also credited with numerous inventions, including the Archimedes screw for raising water and various war machines used to defend Syracuse against Roman siege. According to tradition, he was killed by a Roman soldier during the fall of Syracuse in 212 BC. His surviving treatises profoundly influenced the development of mathematics and physics in later ages.

Sources: Archimedes, On the Sphere and the Cylinder · Archimedes, On Floating Bodies · Plutarch, Life of Marcellus