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Name
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Archimedes |
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Date of Birth / Date of Death
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287-212 BC |
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Birthplace
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Syracuse, Sicily |
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Education
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Studied at Alexandria, Egypt |
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Occupation
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Physicist, inventor, mathmetician |
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Greatest Achievement(s)
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Proved the volume of a sphere is 2/3 the volume of a circumscribed cylinder and Archimedes’ screw |
Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily at about 287 BC. He studied in Egypt at the scientific center of the known world, Alexandria. In Egypt, Archimedes created a screw which would carry and raise water from the Nile to irrigate the fields.
Archimedes made many other discoveries in geometry, physics, optics, astronomy, and many other fields which made him a very prominent scientist. During the Second Punic War, Archimedes invented many weapons like catapults and burning mirrors to defend Syracuse from the Romans. Unfortunately, he was lost sometime during or right after the war in 212 BC.
Archimedes is probably most remembered for the writings of all his discoveries. The most famous of these writings was about Archimedes’ principle. His theorem stated that any immersed object is buoyed by a force equal the weight of the displaced water.
Archimedes’ senior superlative would probably be “Most likely to gain world renown” because he made so many discoveries and studied at Alexandria, the most scientific city of the world. If a movie were made about Archimedes’, I’d have Sean Connery star in it. Connery could look just like Archimedes if he grew out his beard and can sound like a genius when he speaks.
Bibliography
"Archimedes ." Encyclopedia Americana. 2009. Grolier Online. 3 Mar. 2009
"Archimedes' principle." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2009. Grolier Online. 3 Mar. 2009
Henderson, Janice A. "Archimedes." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2009. Grolier Online. 3 Mar. 2009
Cody R.