It was an ingenious combination of levers, pulleys, grappling hooks and cable that could be easily operated by one man. The Claw of Archimedes (also known as the Snatcher, the Ship Shaker or the Iron Hand) was a weapon designed to intercept enemy ships entering the Syracuse harbor, stop them, lift them and topple them into the water. Additionally, he was able to discover the precise value of pi and create a formula for determining the volume of a sphere. This is quite similar to modern day integral calculus.Īrchimedes also created a formula that enabled him to determine the volume of a solid or the volume of an item of irregular shape. This was done using a system he created called using infinitesimals.
He created formulations for such mathematical accomplishments as a formula to measure the area of a circle. On his own, Archimedes continued to study geometry and science and the principles of mechanics and made such major contributions to these disciplines as an understanding of specific gravity, hydrostatics, and buoyancy along with ingenious everyday applications of the use of the lever and the pulley. Upon completing his studies, he returned to Syracuse to help with his family and to work for King Hiero II as an engineer inventing machines of war and improving the designs of existing ones (most notably the catapult). Because of his position, Archimedes was able to travel to Alexandria, Egypt, for his formal education.īy all reports, he was thrilled with the lofty intellectual exchanges he had there. Therefore, Archimedes was able to become an accomplished musician and poet, and he maintained a lifelong interest in astronomy. Archimedes’ Family LifeĪrchimedes’ father, Phidias, was an astronomer of some note, and his family was well off. Archimedes focused primarily on the discipline of geometry, and he was also a renowned inventor and engineer. He is revered as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time alongside Carl Gauss and Sir Isaac Newton. 212 BC (at about age 75) in Syracuse, SicilyĪrchimedes was a great mathematician born in Syracuse, Sicily, Italy, in 287 BC.
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