Archimedes was considered one of the 3 greatest mathematicians of all time, along with Isaac Newton and Carl Fredriech Gauss. During his lifetime, he was given the nicknames of “The Wise One,” and “The Great Geometer” because of his great achievements.
Archimedes stayed in Syracuse, the Greek seaport colony in Sicily. He stayed there his whole life, except for his schooling at Euclid’s School in Alexandria. In Syracuse, King Hiero looked up to Archimedes to solve his toughest problems. Once, the king ordered a gold crown and gave his goldsmith the exact amount of gold needed for it. When the goldsmith returned the crown, it had the correct weight. However, the King suspected that the goldsmith had slipped in some silver . The King was unable to prove it, so he took the problem to Archimedes. Archimedes was in the bathtub one day, when he was thinking about the problem. This is when he discovered the law of buoyancy. " The buoyant force on a submerged or partially submerged object is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object "
He was so excited that he ran through the streets, naked, crying “Eureka, Eureka” (I have found it!) This helped him find the answer to "Mystery of the Gold Impurity" problem. He calculated how much water a pure gold crown would displace, and compared it to the water displaced by the goldsmith's crown. It turned out that the goldsmith was a crook.
Archimedes continued to solve many of the King's problems, and remained his good friend. King Heiro was so impressed with him that he persuaded him to make new weapons to protect the city. In 212 B.C, the Roman general Marcellus wanted to conquer Syracuse. Syracuse used Archimedes unique weapons to defend itself.The weapons hurled boulders at the solders and lifted ships in the air and then threw them at rocks. Also, mirrors were positioned to aim the sun at enemy ships, which light them on fire.
Archimedes died a miserable death, killed by someone that didn’t know that he was killing one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. The traditional story is that he was drawing figures in the dust, when a Roman soldier told him that he must come with him. Archimedes was so absorbed in his work that he replied, ”Don’t disturb my circles!” The solider was so furious that he pulled out his sword and killed him.
