Archimedes 

of Syracuse (287-212 BC) Greek domain

Archimedes is universally acknowledged to be the greatest of ancient mathematicians.
He studied at Euclid's school (probably after Euclid's death), but his work far
surpassed, and even leapfrogged, the works of Euclid. (For example, some of Euclid's
more difficult theorems are easy analytic consequences of Archimedes' Lemma of
Centroids.) His achievements are particularly impressive given the lack of good
mathematical notation in his day. His proofs are noted not only for brilliance but for
unequaled clarity, with a modern biographer (Heath) describing Archimedes' treatises
as "without exception monuments of mathematical exposition ... so impressive in their
perfection as to create a feeling akin to awe in the mind of the reader." Archimedes
made advances in number theory, algebra, and analysis, but is most renowned for his
many theorems of plane and solid geometry. He might have been first to prove
Heron's formula for the area of a triangle. His excellent approximation to √3 indicates
that he'd partially anticipated the method of continued fractions. He developed a
recursive method of representing large integers, and was first to note the law of
exponents, 10a·10b = 10a+b. Working with exponents, he developed simple notation
and names for numbers larger than 10^(10^16); this will seem more startling when
you recall that it was another 18 centuries before Europeans would invent the word
"million."

Archimedes found a method to trisect an arbitrary angle (using

a markable straightedge — the construction is impossible using strictly Platonic
rules). One of his most remarkable and famous geometric results was determining the
area of a parabolic section, for which he offered two independent proofs, one using
his Principle of the Lever, the other using a geometric series. Some of Archimedes'
work survives only because Thabit ibn Qurra translated the otherwise-lost Book of
Lemmas; it contains the angle-trisection method and several ingenious theorems about
inscribed circles. (Thabit shows how to construct a regular heptagon; it may not be
clear whether this came from Archimedes, or was fashioned by Thabit by studying
Archimedes' angle-trisection method.) Other discoveries known only second-hand
include the Archimedean semiregular solids reported by Pappus, and the Broken-
Chord Theorem reported by Alberuni.

Archimedes and Newton might be the two best geometers ever, but although each
produced ingenious geometric proofs, often they used non-rigorous calculus
to discover results, and then devised rigorous geometric proofs for publication.
Archimedes used integral calculus to determine the centers of mass of hemisphere and
cylindrical wedge, and the volume of two cylinders' intersection. He also worked with
various spirals, paraboloids of revolution, etc. Although Archimedes didn't develop
differentiation (integration's inverse), Michel Chasles credits him (along with Kepler,
Cavalieri, and Fermat, who all lived more than 18 centuries later) as one of the four
who developed calculus before Newton and Leibniz. (Although familiar with the
utility of infinitesimals, he accepted the "Theorem of Eudoxus" which bans them to
avoid Zeno's paradoxes. Modern mathematicians refer to that "Theorem" as the
Axiom of Archimedes.)

Archimedes was an astronomer (details of his discoveries are lost, but it is likely he
knew the Earth rotated around the Sun). He was one of the greatest mechanists ever,
discovering Archimedes' Principle of Hydrostatics. (A body partially or completely
immersed in a fluid effectively loses weight equal to the weight of the fluid it
displaces. Archimedes is famous for testing the purity of his King's gold crown, but he
didn't write up his solution; it was finally Galileo who pointed out that a test based on
measuring water displacement, as had been assumed to be Archimedes' "Eureka!"
method, would be extremely imprecise. Instead Archimedes must have applied the
less trivial corollaries of his Principle of Hydrostatics by comparing a balance scale's
reading in and out of water.) Archimedes developed the mathematical foundations
underlying the advantage of basic machines: lever, screw and compound pulley.
Although Archytas perhaps invented the screw, and Stone-Age man (and even other
animals) used levers, it is said that the compound pulley was invented by Archimedes
himself. For these achievements he is widely considered to be one of the three or four
greatest theoretical physicists ever. Archimedes was a prolific inventor: in addition to
inventing the compound pulley, he invented the hydraulic screw-pump (called
Archimedes' screw); a miniature planetarium; and several war machines -- catapult,
parabolic mirrors to burn enemy ships, a steam cannon, and 'the Claw of Archimedes.'
(Some scholars attribute the Antikythera mechanism to Archimedes -- Is it the
Archimedean planetarium mentioned by Cicero? However this is unlikely: the
detailed motion of the Moon produced by the mechanism was probably unknown until
Hipparchus.)

His books include Floating Bodies, Spirals, The Sand Reckoner, Measurement of the

Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, Plane Equilibriums, Conoids and Spheroids, Quadrature
of Parabola, The Book of Lemmas (translated and attributed by Thabit ibn Qurra),
various now-lost works (on Mirrors, Balances and Levers, Semi-regular Polyhedra,
etc.) cited by Pappus or others, and (discovered only recently, and often called his
most important work) The Method. He developed the Stomachion puzzle (and solved
a difficult enumeration problem involving it); other famous gems include The Cattle-
Problem. The Book of Lemmas contains various geometric gems ("the Salinon," "the
Shoemaker's Knife", etc.) and is credited to Archimedes by Thabit ibn Qurra but the
attribution is disputed.
Archimedes discovered formulae for the volume and surface area of a sphere, and
may even have been first to notice and prove the simple relationship between a circle's
circumference and area. For these reasons, π is often called Archimedes' constant. His
approximation 223/71 < π < 22/7 was the best of his day. (Apollonius soon surpassed
it, but by using Archimedes' method.) Archimedes' Equiarea Map Theorem asserts
that a sphere and its enclosing cylinder have equal surface area (as do the figures'
truncations). Archimedes also proved that the volume of that sphere is two-thirds the
volume of the cylinder. He requested that a representation of such a sphere and
cylinder be inscribed on his tomb.

That Archimedes shared the attitude of later mathematicians like Hardy and Brouwer
is suggested by Plutarch's comment that Archimedes regarded applied mathematics
"as ignoble and sordid ... and did not deign to [write about his mechanical inventions;
instead] he placed his whole ambition in those speculations the beauty and subtlety of
which are untainted by any admixture of the common needs of life."

Some of Archimedes' greatest writings (including The Method and Floating Bodies)

are preserved only on a palimpsest rediscovered in 1906 and mostly deciphered only
after 1998. Ideas unique to that work are an anticipation of Riemann integration,
calculating the volume of a cylindrical wedge (previously first attributed to Kepler).
Along with Oresme and Galileo, Archimedes was among the few to comment on the
"equinumerosity paradox" (the fact that there are as many perfect squares as integers).
Although Euler and Newton may have been the most important mathematicians, and
Gauss, Weierstrass and Riemann the greatest theorem provers, it is widely accepted
that Archimedes was the greatest genius who ever lived. Yet, Hart omits him
altogether from his list of Most Influential Persons: Archimedes was simply too far
ahead of his time to have great historical significance. (He does rank #11 on the
Pantheon List. Some think the Scientific Revolution would have begun sooner
had The Method been discovered four or five centuries earlier. You can read a 1912
translation of parts of The Method on-line.)

Top

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC) Greek domain

Eratosthenes was one of the greatest polymaths; he is called the Father of Geography,
was Chief Librarian at Alexandria, was a poet, music theorist, mechanical engineer
(anticipating laws of elasticity, etc.), astronomer (he is credited as first to measure the
circumference of the Earth), and an outstanding mathematician. He is famous for his
prime number Sieve, but more impressive was his work on the cube-doubling problem
which he related to the design of siege weapons (catapults) where a cube-root
calculation is needed.
Eratosthenes had the nickname Beta; he was a master of several fields, but was only
second-best of his time. His better was also his good friend: Archimedes of Syracuse
dedicated The Method to Eratosthenes.