Archimedes

Syracuse

Then a Greek city.

💡 Did you know? Archimedes lived in ancient Syracuse on Sicily, one of the richest Greek cities of its time.

Eureka

On grasping buoyancy in the bath.

💡 Did you know? „Eureka!“ („I've found it!“) Archimedes supposedly cried, leaping naked from his bath and running through the streets.

Archimedes' principle

The weight lost equals the displaced water.

💡 Did you know? His law of buoyancy still explains why ships weighing thousands of tonnes do not sink.

law of the lever

He explained the force amplification of levers.

💡 Did you know? „Give me a firm place to stand and I will move the Earth“: so Archimedes is said to have described the lever.

Archimedean screw

Still in use today.

💡 Did you know? The „Archimedes screw“ lifts water uphill and is still used in pumps and combine harvesters.

pi

Between 3 10/71 and 3 1/7.

💡 Did you know? Over 1,800 years before computers, Archimedes approximated pi remarkably accurately using polygons.

war machines

He defended Syracuse for years.

💡 Did you know? With cranes and burning mirrors, Archimedes reputedly held the besieging Romans at bay for years.

Do not disturb my circles

A Roman soldier killed him in 212 BC.

💡 Did you know? „Do not disturb my circles!“ Archimedes supposedly cried before a Roman soldier killed him: absorbed in a drawing in the sand.

Archimedes

Archimedes was a mathematician and inventor of antiquity whose findings on buoyancy, the lever and pi are still taught today.

💡 Did you know? He computed pi so precisely without any modern tools that his value was barely improved for nearly 2,000 years.

287 BC

Born: c. 287 BC in Syracuse, Sicily