Greece is not in vain considered the cradle of Western culture, because it was on this blessed land, washed by the warm waves of the Mediterranean Sea, that brilliant scientists lived and worked. The list of names of people who laid the foundations of modern science could take more than one page. We will focus on one of them - mathematics, physics, engineer. A lot of information about his really great mind has been preserved, and the legend of Archimedes is known to every student. We will tell you what kind of person this is and what all generations of people owe to him.
A bit about genius
The legend of Archimedes is undoubtedly interesting. But first, we want to tell a little about the scientist himself. The biography of the famous Greek came to us in the expositions of such ancient authors as Titus Livius, Vitruvius, Cicero, Polybius, Plutarch. Each of them lived much later than Archimedes, therefore it cannot be argued that the events described by them are reliable.
The future genius was born in Syracuse, in Sicily. Perhaps Archimedes was a relative of the ruler of the city, Hieron II. He was instilled with a passion for science by his father, Phidias, a famous astronomer and mathematician. And he studied in Alexandria, the largest cultural and scientific center of that time.
Long before the legend of Archimedes appeared, the genius met prominent people, Conon and Eratosthenes, with whom he then corresponded all his life. He spent hours in the famous library, in which over seven hundred thousand manuscripts were collected. It was in it that Archimedes had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the writings of Democritus and Eudoxus, which he often mentioned later in his writings.
Biographers argue that, after graduating, Archimedes returned to his hometown, where he enjoyed the honor and did not need funds at all.
Scientist and crown
There is more than one legend about Archimedes, there are a lot of them, because the scientist continually invented, researched, created something. The most popular of them is familiar to us from school. This is the legend of Archimedes about the crown. Let us briefly describe its essence.
Once the cruel king Hieron wanted to check if the jeweler had deceived him by making a gold crown for him. He ordered the scientist to determine whether his jewelry was really made of pure precious metal. The difficulty was to determine the volume of the crown, since it had an irregular shape. Reflecting on the task, Archimedes found a way to cope with it: immerse the product in water and measure the volume of liquid displaced by it. Then, as the legend of Archimedes tells, the genius exclaimed “Eureka!”, Which means “found” in translation. And the discovery of hydrostatics came into science as the law of Archimedes.
How to flip the earth?
But we also know another legend about Archimedes (photo below). Biographers say that the ruler of Syracuse ordered the construction of a heavy multi-deck ship, which was intended as a gift to Ptolemy, the Egyptian king. But he could not be launched into the water, and here Archimedes came to the rescue. He built a whole system of blocks around the ship and, using the power of the lever, easily coped with the task. It was then that the aphorism of the inventor was born: "Give me a fulcrum, and I will turn the world upside down."
Saved Syracuse
The scientist’s amazing inventions saved his hometown from destruction. This is another legend about Archimedes (you probably studied it in physics). So, according to the biographers of engineering genius, in 212 BC. e. Roman legions besieged Syracuse. At the time of the second Punic war, our hero was about 75 years old. But his mind was still quick and inquisitive.
So, Archimedes developed the drawings of powerful throwing machines that threw stones at the troops of the commander Marcellus. Fleeing from such shelling, the Roman army rushed to the walls of Syracuse. But there they were also waiting for an unpleasant surprise - light throwing machines. In addition, the townspeople (probably not without the help of a scientist) built cranes that grabbed the ships, lifted them up, and then threw them down and drowned. The invaders retreated.
Another version says that the fleet of the Eternal City during the siege was burned by the fire that arose when using mirrors or incendiary mixtures. However, if previous legends have been verified by modern scientists and confirmed, then the fire from Syracuse is still considered a beautiful fairy tale.
Life ending
As a result of the treason, Syracuse was still captured by the Romans in the same year. Archimedes, who saved the city earlier, was killed. There are four versions of the death of the scientist, but they all boil down to the fact that the old man was killed by soldiers. The commander Marcellus was very upset at learning about the death of a famous man, and arranged for him a worthy funeral. The killers were executed. Today in Syracuse you can see the stone tomb of Archimedes, built two centuries after his death. But the scientist continues to live in the hearts of people as the most famous inventor of the past, as the savior of his native city and a devoted servant of science.