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Young World
Archimedes
V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
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Archimedes (287 – 212 B.C.) is known for his Law of Specific Gravity.
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Illustration: V.K. SUBRAMANIAN
Archimedes, the Greek mathematician and inventor, was born at Syracuse, Sicily. He was the student of Conon, who was the student of Euclid.Eureka!
The principle of Archimedes or the Law of Specific Gravity, which is Archimedes’ major discovery, is known to every school child. “A body immersed in a fluid loses as much in weight as the weight of an equal volume of the fluid.” King Hieron had given gold to his jeweller to make a crown; when the crown was made and delivered to the king, he had a suspicion that the goldsmity might have mixed silver with the gold and stolen some gold. He asked Archimedes, the court scientist, to find out. For weeks, Archimedes could find no answer. But one day as he stepped into his bathtub, he saw that water overflowed according to the depth of his immersion and his body seemed to weigh less. He jumped out of his tub and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse, shouting: “Eureka! Eureka! I have found it! I have found it!”
Archimedes immersed the crown and equal weights of gold and silver in water and from the difference in the quantity of water displaced, found the extent to which the goldsmith had mixed silver and gold.
Archimedes is credited with a number of inventions, which were used to stave off the Romans attacking the city of Syracuse. These include the burning mirrors, the multiple pulley and the screw of Archimedes. But the Romans finally captured Syracuse and a Roman soldier killed Archimedes, while he was sitting, drawing circles on sand.
About his invention of lever and pulley, Archimedes said: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.”
Archimedes’ mathematical achievements have not been surpassed by any one man in world’s history.
This is an extract from the book The Great Ones by V.K.Subramanian, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi
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