a way to determine the area and volume of objects like cylinders and paraboloids that are solid and bounded by curved surfaces. He also proved that "the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of circumscribed cylinder". Archimedes took so much pride in this discovery that he requested that a representation of this formula be inscribed on his tomb.
Archimedes is also known for his approximation of pi (p). His method for finding the approximation was by "circumscribing and inscribing a circle with regular polygons having ninety-six sides". Archimedes stated that the value of p was between 31/7 and 310/71. Some of his other theorems concern the centers of gravity of solids and plane figures. Remarkably, some of Archimedes's methods anticipated many discoveries of modern science, like integral calculus. People often consider this to be unusual due to the fact integral calculus wasn't "invented" until two thousand years after Archimedes lived.
Among all the contributions Archimedes made, he is most recognized for what is now called Archimedes' Principle. Archimedes' Principle is his theory on the weight of an object inside of a liquid. This theory states that "any object floating upon or submerged in a fluid …show more content…
is buoyed upward by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid". If the object is heavier than the surrounding fluid, it will sink. The opposite would happen if the object were lighter. Archimedes' Principle is used today to find out the density and volume of irregularly shaped objects.
Archimedes wasn't only a mathematician, but also an inventor.
One of his most notable inventions is the screw pump. Archimedes invented this machine while living in Egypt. The Archimedes' screw, as it is sometimes called, is designed to lift water from a stream and pump it to fields in a higher area. It was also used by the Romans to build expansive aqueduct systems, some of which are still being used. The screw pump is a cylinder containing a wide thread screw and to use it, you would put it on an incline with one end in the stream. As you turned the screw, the water was raised higher. During the Roman conquest of Sicily, he helped prepare a defense against the Romans. Archimedes made several inventions at this time. They included the catapult, the compound pulley, and a mirror system to focus the sun's light onto enemy ships to ignite them. Archimedes' theories led to the later inventions of the hydrometer and the lever. Despite his extraordinary efforts, Syracuse was taken over by the Romans and Archimedes was killed. He died in the year 212BC and was believed to have been killed by a soldier who interrupted Archimedes while calculating something in the sand. It is said that he offended the soldier by remarking, "Do not disturb my diagrams.". Archimedes wrote several works on mathematics. The surviving ones are Sphere and Cylinder, Measurement of the Circle, Spirals, The Sand Reckoner, Quadrature of the Parabola, Plane, Equilibriums, Conoids and Spheroids, and Floating
Bodies.