 
Archimedes was the most famous mathematician and inventor of ancient Greece. He was born in in Syracuse, Sicily, in 287 BC, where he spent most of his life. He did, however, attend Euclid's school in Alexandria, Egypt, which was one of the biggest cities of the time. The translation of many of Archimedes' works in the sixteenth century contributed greatly to the spread of knowledge of them, and influenced the work of the foremost mathematicians and physicists of the next century, including Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes and Pierre de Fermat.  Archimedes was well known in his own time, not because people had an interest in new mathematical ideas, but because Archimedes had invented many machines which were used as engines of war. These were particularly effective in the defence of Syracuse when it was attacked by the Romans. Archimedes invented the catapult, and according to one story, he discovered how to use mirrors and the sun's rays to burn invaders' boats and ships.
Archimedes published his works in the form of correspondence with the principal mathematicians of his time. His five surviving books include 'Floating Bodies', 'The Sand Reckoner', 'Measurement of the Circle', 'Spirals', and 'Sphere and Cylinder'. His mathematical accomplishments include:
Archimedes was also known as an outstanding astronomer; his observations of solstices were used by other astronomers of the era. The story that he determined the proportion of gold and silver in a crown made for a king by weighing it in water is probably true, but the version that has him leaping from the bath in which he supposedly got the idea and running naked through the streets shouting "Eureka!" ("I have found it!") is probably just embellishment. Archimedes is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. However, Archimedes' mathematical work was not continued in any important way in ancient times. It was not until some of his mathematical writings were translated into Arabic in the eighth century AD that attempts were made to extend his results. Then later, in the sixteenth century, Europeans came to know his work, and build on it; it is said that the rediscovery of the work of the ancient Greek mathematicians, among the foremost of whom was Archimedes, was the main impetus behind the mathematical triumphs of the 1600's, and the works of Kepler, Cavalieri, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton. Archimedes died in 212 BC, while helping to defend his city of Syracuse from attack. |
