Archimedes

[Maia]

Today we are going to talk about a great scientist/inventor of the past who is still relevant, Archimedes. Archimedes was born c. 287 BC in the seaport city of Syracuse, Sicily, at that time a self-governing colony in Magna Graecia, located along the coast of Southern Italy. Archimedes was an astronaut. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. He was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time, Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts of infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, and the area under a parabola. His great invention includes Archimedes’ screw.
Archimedes’ screw was a device with a revolving screw-shaped blade inside a cylinder. It was turned by hand, and could also be used to transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals. The Archimedes’ screw is still in use today for pumping liquids and granulated solids such as coal and grain. The Archimedes’ screw described in Roman times by Vitruvius may have been an improvement on a screw pump that was used to irrigate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The world’s first seagoing steamship with a screw propeller was the Archimedes, which was launched in 1839 and named in honor of Archimedes and his work on the screw.

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