In book Four, The Alchemist, by Kim Stanley Robinson, Archimedes made a great impact on Bahrams views and what he learned through his studies of philosophy, physics and engineering. His studies and inventions helped great scientists such as Galileo and Sir Issac Newton and there studies continued on into how gravity worked, how boats stay afloat and how canals were made.

Archimedes (Greek: Άρχιμήδης; c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who made fundamental discoveries in the fields of physics and engineering. He is widely regarded as the greatest scientist in classical antiquity. The 18th century German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss described Archimedes as one of the three most influential mathematicians of all time, with the others being Sir Isaac Newton and the lesser known Ferdinand Eisenstein.

Discoveries and inventions

Archimedes is regarded as the first mathematical physicist, and he was the key contributor to this field prior to Galileo and Newton. The most famous anecdote told about his work is how he discovered the principle of buoyancy. According to Vitruvius, a new crown in the shape of a laurel wreath had been made for King Hiero, and Archimedes was asked to determine whether it was of solid gold, or whether silver had been added by a dishonest goldsmith. Archimedes had to solve the problem without damaging the crown, so he could not melt it down in order to measure its volume. While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water rose as he got in. He realized that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown, and therefore its density after weighing it. The density of the crown would be lower if cheaper and lighter metals had been added. He then took to the streets naked, being so elated with his discovery that he forgot to dress, crying "Eureka!" ("I have found it!").[5][6] This discovery is known in the field of hydrostatics as Archimedes' Principle, which states that a body immersed in a fluid experiences a buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.[7] Archimedes screw

Another invention bearing his name is the Archimedes screw. This was a machine with a revolving screw shaped blade, and was used to drain ships and transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals. Versions of the Archimedes screw are still in use today in developing countries.
While Archimedes did not invent the lever, he gave the first rigorous explanation of the principles involved, which are the transmission of force through a fulcrum and moving the effort applied through a greater distance than the object to be moved. His Law of the Lever states: Magnitudes are in equilibrium at distances reciprocally proportional to their weights. His work on levers caused him to remark: "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth."[8] Plutarch describes how Archimedes designed block and tackle pulley systems, allowing sailors to use the principle of leverage to lift objects that would otherwise have been too heavy to move.
A large part of Archimedes' work in engineering arose from fulfilling the needs of his home city of Syracuse. The Greek writer Athenaeus describes how King Hiero II commissioned Archimedes to design a huge ship, the Syracusia, which could be used for luxury travel, carrying supplies and as a naval warship. The Syracusia is said to have been the largest ship built in classical antiquity. According to Athenaeus, it was capable of carrying 600 people and contained garden decorations, a gymnasium and a temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. Since a ship of this size would leak a considerable amount of water through the hull, the Archimedes Screw was purportedly developed in order to remove the bilge water.[9] A conceptual diagram of the "Archimedes death ray"
During the Second Punic War, Archimedes is said to have repelled an attack by Roman forces by using a "burning glass" to focus sunlight on the approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. This claim, sometimes called the "Archimedes death ray", has been the subject of ongoing debate about its credibility since the Renaissance. Rene Descartes rejected it as false, while modern researchers have attempted to recreate the effect using only the means that would have been available to Archimedes. It has been suggested that a large array of highly polished bronze shields acting as mirrors could have been employed to focus sunlight on to a ship, utilizing the principle of the parabolic reflector. In October 2005 a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology carried out an experiment with 127 one foot square mirror tiles, focused on a mocked-up wooden ship at a range of around 100 feet. Flames broke out on a patch of the ship, but only after the sky had been cloudless and the ship had remained stationary for around ten minutes. Nevertheless, it was concluded that the weapon was a feasible device under these conditions. The MIT group repeated the experiment for the television show Mythbusters, using a wooden fishing boat in San Francisco as the target. Again some charring occurred, along with a small amount of flame. When Mythbusters broadcast the result of the San Francisco experiment in January 2006, the claim was placed in the category of "myth" due to the length of time and ideal weather conditions required for combustion to occur. In real life a ballista (catapult) with flaming bolts would have been a far more dangerous weapon, while the effects of the "Archimedes death ray" might have been limited to confusing or temporarily blinding people on board the ship.[10][11][12]
The Claw of Archimedes is another weapon that he is said to have designed in order to defend the city of Syracuse. Also known as "the ship shaker", the claw consisted of a crane-like arm from which a large metal grappling hook was suspended. When the claw was dropped on to an attacking ship the arm would swing upwards, lifting the ship out of the water and possibly sinking it. As with the "Archimedes death ray" there have been modern experiments to test the feasibility of the claw, and in 2005 a television documentary entitled Superweapons of the Ancient World built a version of the claw and concluded that it was a workable device. No contemporary drawings of the Claw of Archimedes exist, although the weapon may have been similar in design to a trebuchet.[13]
Archimedes has also been credited with improving the power and accuracy of the catapult, and with inventing the odometer during the First Punic War.
Cicero wrote that after the capture of Syracuse, General Marcellus took two mechanical devices back to Rome that were used as aids in astronomy. He credits Thales and Eudoxus with constructing these devices. The motions of the Sun, Moon and five planets were shown by one device, and it was demonstrated to Cicero some 150 years later by a man named Gallus. Cicero described the event as follows:
Hanc sphaeram Gallus cum moveret, fiebat ut soli luna totidem conversionibus in aere illo quot diebus in ipso caelo succederet, ex quo et in [caelo] sphaera solis fieret eadem illa defectio, et incideret luna tum in eam metam quae esset umbra terrae, cum sol e regione. - When Gallus moved the globe, it happened that the Moon followed the Sun by as many turns on that bronze [contrivance] as in the sky itself, from which also in the sky the Sun's globe became [to have] that same eclipse, and the Moon came then to that position which was [its] shadow [on] the Earth, when the Sun was in line.[14]
The device described by Cicero is a planetarium or orrery. Pappus of Alexandria stated that Archimedes had written a manuscript (now lost) on the construction of these devices entitled On Sphere-Making. Recent research in this area has been focused on the Antikythera mechanism, another device from classical antiquity that was probably designed for the same use. Constructing devices of this kind would have required a knowledge of differential gearing. This was once thought to have been beyond the range of the technology available in ancient times, but the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism in 1902 has confirmed that devices of this kind were known to the ancient Greeks.[15][16]

For other uses, see Archimedes (disambiguation).
(From Wikipedia article "Archimedes" accessed 2/20/07,GNU Free Documentation License)