Archimedes

The Smartest Man Earth Has Ever Known

Salim Ford
February 27, 2019
Ms. Correa
Writing E06
 It was in a bath when Archimedes discovered one of his most famous accomplishments.

He climbed into a bath and then, having noticed the water level going up when he went in,

jumped out and ran naked around the city yelling “Eureka;” which means “I’ve found it.” He

discovered that if you put an object in a bath, the bath water will rise as much as the buoyant

force pushes it up. Archimedes not only discovered this, but created many more interesting and

useful things. For example, invented Greek fire, a fire which cannot be put out by water! People

still use it in grenades today. His original formulas, mathematical principles and engineering

skills make him one of the most valuable contributors to applied mathematics.

Archimedes lived during the Hellenistic age of Greece which was time when Greek

traditions were widely spread across the world. He was born in 288 Before Christ (B.C.) and

died in 212 B.C., when he was killed by a Roman soldier. People have yet to discover much of

Archimedes’s life (“Archimedes Biography”). His father was an astronomer and it is likely that

Archimedes learned from him. However, people have not discovered who Archimedes’ mother

was, (Wehner). There is little known about Archimedes’s personality. He studied at a school in

Alexandria, Egypt called the Museum (Reid and Fara, 3). We can only infer what Archimedes’

life was like based on where he lived and where he was from. He was from Greece, so he

probably followed all the Greek traditions, superstitions, values, etc. He also probably

worshipped Greek gods. Most likely, Archimedes lived in a peaceful environment because of his

relationships with royal people. During his time if you were related to or friends with someone in

a royal family, then you would probably have it better than most. “He was probably related to the

king of Syracuse” (Anirudh), which means he may have received royal attention and lived life

easier than the ones below him. Since it is likely that he had it better than most, which allowed

him to focus more on his inventions and works and not be interrupted by city problems. This
could be an advantage Archimedes had over other important intellectuals such as Galileo Galilei,

who had no royal relationships. Archimedes was a famous person in his own time.

Then, when the Romans took over Greece, the emperor told his fellow soldier not to kill

Archimedes because he was too smart and too valuable to be dead. The Romans could use him.

There are many versions of how Archimedes died; one version is this: Archimedes was creating

diagrams on his dust floor when the Romans invaded. A Roman soldier (the one the emperor

appointed) broke into Archimedes house. The Roman soldier stepped onto the diagram, which

disappointed Archimedes. Some people say that Archimedes said, “Don’t touch my diagram,”

which angered the Roman soldier, and he killed Archimedes (“Ancient Greece”). Later, the

Roman Soldier who killed Archimedes was punished. “Archimedes requested that A sphere and

a cylinder was placed on his tomb on his request [sic.]” (Anirudh).

Also, Archimedes was said to be either a cousin or good friend of King Helios. There is a

story about Archimedes and King Helios’s golden crown. One day, King Helios gave his

blacksmith the gold to make a crown. King Helios gave the blacksmith the gold, and the

blacksmith came back with a crown. The king, however, suspected that the crown was not pure

gold, and that the blacksmith had replaced some of the gold with silver, and kept that gold as his

own. So he called for Archimedes. Archimedes thought and thought until one day he discovered

that if he goes into water, he weighs as much as how much water is displaced, and the same thing

can be used with silver and gold. So he took the king’s crown and compared with the weight of

the gold the king had given the blacksmith. Sure enough, because silver is heavier than gold, the

king’s crown displaced more water; and therefore the blacksmith had tricked the king and put

some silver into the crown as well (Puiu). This shows that Archimedes was able to solve real life

problems most people can not solve just by using math.

 It is easy to see that Archimedes was able to be a mathematician, scientist, engineer, and

theorist within his lifetime. With his outstanding inventions, he showed exceeding skills as an

inventor. Archimedes was significant to his people, and received fame. However, he thought his

ideas were horrible and left no written work on those subjects (Toomer). He used most of his

time contributing useful tools and mathematical information to the world in his time.

Clearly, we still use some of Archimedes formulas and principles today. Archimedes had

many achievements, such as discovering the law of mechanics and hydrostatics, also known as

the Archimedes principle. His most famous achievement was discovering how the buoyant force

works. Imagine a person is scuba diving; when that person swims down, it feels like the water is

pushing the person back up. That force is called the buoyant force. He also “invented one of the

most fundamental concepts of physics – the center of gravity,” (“Archimedes”). Eighteen

centuries later, mathematicians still do not know how Archimedes received his results! He was a

genius after his era. He also created many equations based on the use of exponents. He

stimulated Isaac Newton to consider the mathematics of motion. He was one of the first

mathematicians to study physics as well.

Surprisingly, Archimedes was handy in battle as well. He created war machines so

complex, they were able to stop invading armies. King Helios used multiple war machines

Archimedes designed in order to defeat his enemies. One war machine was called the

Archimedes Claw. This machine was a huge hand which was controlled by a lever and a pulley

and was used to grab the front of the ship and tip it vertically so the people on board fell out and

the ship sunk. Another invention was called The Death Ray. This was a big mirror that reflected

the sun onto invading ships which made the ships catch fire and sink. Archimedes also crafted

catapults and stonethrowers. “Archimedes created huge stone-throwers that could hurl 500-lbs
boulders at approaching ships and soldiers” (Shuttleworth). He created the Architonnerre.

According to Leonardo Da Vinci, “The Architonnerre is a machine of fine copper, which throws

balls with a loud report and great force” (Payne). As previously mentioned, he also crafted the

invincible Greek Fire, and threw it onto enemy ships which also burned them down and sunk

them. He was a great contributor to many battles fought during his lifetime.

Archimedes not only created war inventions, but others as well. One of these inventions

is the Archimedes screw. “This ingeniously contrived device was invented by Archimedes to

help poor farmers irrigate their crops” (Puiu). It is used to bring up ground water or sea water

easily. He understood the use of leverage systems. The leverage systems helped him designed the

Archimedes screw and a lot of his other inventions. Archimedes also created the first odometer.

He “mounted a large wheel of known circumference in a small frame, in much the same fashion

as the wheel is mounted on a wheelbarrow; when it was pushed along the ground by hand it

automatically dropped a pebble into a container at each revolution, giving a measure of the

distance traveled. It was, in effect, the first odometer” (Toomer). He created the Antikythera

mechanism which is the world's oldest gear machine (Mandal). This machine was able to

anticipate space observations such as the lunar eclipse. This initially bewildered the

archaeologists and scientists examining it.

Moreover, all of his inventions included some type of mathematics. Archimedes would

need to understand how lever and pulley systems work in order to have created the Archimedes

Claw, the Archimedes screw, his catapults, and stonethrowers. He needed to have known the

science of reflecting lenses, and how thick the lense should be, in order to have created the Death

Ray. The mathematics is still unknown on how he created Greek fire; it is beyond modern-day

knowledge. Also, in order to have created the Architonnerre, he would have had to have had the
knowledge of how to create vapor, and how to use it once he had created it. Leonardo Da Vinci

was dumbfounded by this machine because of how it worked and how Archimedes invented it.

All of his other inventions, like his war machines, included some kind of mathematical equation

or knowledge of physics. He needed the knowledge of spheres in order to create the first

odometer. The Antikythera mechanism must have needed an immense amount of effort, skill,

and creativity in order to create such a machine where you could foresee what will happen in

space. Some believe that his father helped him create this machine, but at the very least he

probably passed along his knowledge of astronomy to Archimedes. If Archimedes created

machines people do not understand today, how smart would somebody have to be to create

something people do not understand 2000 years from now? “Although his method is now

outdated, the advances that finally outdated it did not occur until about two thousand years after

Archimedes lived” (Anirudh).

Clearly, Archimedes was inspired by math. He worked on many mathematical equations.

He calculated the volume of a sphere ( ⁄ πr ) and discovered the use of a pulley and a lever.
4
3
3

Archimedes estimated the value of pi. “His estimate was between 3 ⁄ (approximately 3.1429) and
1
7

3 ⁄ (approximately 3.1408), which compares well with its actual value of approximately
10
71

3.1416.” (Mastin), which means he only messed up the fourth digit after the decimal place.

Archimedes also understood infinity. “In fact, Archimedes had perhaps the most prescient view

of the concept of infinity of all the Greek mathematicians” (Mastin). Archimedes played a big

role in geometry. “Archimedes, the greatest mathematician of antiquity, made his greatest

contributions in geometry.” (Allen). He had a complex brain. A lot of his equations are

confusing. Many of those equations we still need today. It is amazing that he created equations
that people still need and use 2,000 years later! Archimedes not only came up with one equation;

he came up with many. This is one of many reasons why people are inspired by him.

If only the Greeks knew they had a person so smart, because not even modern-day

scientists understand some of his inventions. He inspired and astonished many people. He was a

mathematician, engineer, astronomer (like his father), weapons designer, physicist, and scientist.

He was a genius and knew how to work with his wisdom. With all this evidence and information,

it is logical to say that Archimedes was the smartest person history has ever known.
 Works Cited

Allen, Don. “Archimedes of Syracuse.” 2008, February 19.

www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/history/archimed/archimed.html. Accessed 24th January

2019.

“Ancient Greece.” www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Archimedes. Accessed 29th January 2019.

Anirudh. “Archimedes: 10 facts on the Greek Mathematician.” 2017, August 17.

learnodo-newtonic.com/archimedes-facts. Accessed 24th January 2019.

“Archimedes Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography.

www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Archimedes.html. Accessed 28th January 2019.

“History Archimedes.” BBC News. 2014, January 23rd

www.bbc.co.uk/history/historicfigures/archimedes.shtml. Accessed 25th January 2019.

Mandal, D. “4 Remarkable Inventions Of Archimedes” 2015.

www.hexapolis.com/2015/07/07/4-remarkable-inventions-of-archimedes-that-still-baffle-

us. Accessed 2nd February 2019.

Mastin, L. “The Story of Mathematics.” 2010.

www.storyofmathematics.com/hellenistic_archimedes.html Accessed 20th January 2019.

Payne, S. “The Info List - Architonnerre.” 2014-2017.

http://www.theinfolist.com/php/SummaryGet.php?FindGo=Architonnerre Accessed 3rd

March 2019.
Puiu, T. “Archimedes’ legacy: inventions and discoveries.” 2018.

www.zmescience.com/science/archimedes-legacy-inventions-discoveries/. Accessed 3rd

February 2019.

Reid, S and Fara, P. “Scientists From Archimedes to Einstein” 1996. Page 3. Accessed 1st

February 2019.

Shuttleworth, M. “Archimedes” 2019. explorable.com/archimedes. Accessed 21st January 2019.

Toomer, G.J. “Archimedes.” 2018, October 26. www.britannica.com/biography/Archimedes.

Accessed 18th January 2019.

Wehner, D. “Archimedes”

http://www.stegen.k12.mo.us/tchrpges/sghs/aengelmann/archimedes2.htm. Accessed 3rd

March 2019.