The Greek genius who shone in physics and mathematics
If there was a contest to choose the greatest genius of all time, the Greek Archimedes (287-212 or 211 BC) would be a very serious contender. His father had been an astronomer of little importance in the history of science, named Phidias, but what his father did not do, his son did more than enough. There was no important subject at that time that Archimedes did not make an intelligent guess and often founded areas of knowledge that did not yet exist. Legend has it that Archimedes discovered, while taking a bath, that a body immersed in a liquid suffers the action of a force, vertical and upward, which relieves the body's weight. This force of the liquid on the body is called buoyancy. Upon discovering it, he would have run naked down the street, saying:"EURECA!" (I found it in Greek).
He was the first to deduce the laws of levers and pulleys and to discover
because boats and ships float. He liked machines and invented a number of useful contraptions, such as a device for pumping water that is still used in some parts of the world, and terrible war catapults, with which he could throw stones from a quarter of a ton at 1 kilometer. from distance. His prestige was so great that he was even credited with improbable feats, such as having set up a set of mirrors capable of concentrating sunlight and setting fire to warships at sea. Current experiences show that the device was indeed ingenious, but it would hardly have this capacity.
In mathematics, Archimedes taught new calculations and how to determine the area of figures such as ellipses, parabolas and cylinders. He also devised a numbering system with which one could write gigantic numbers, unimaginable in his time, which amounted to 80 quadrillion.
Born into a family of aristocrats, he was a friend of King Heron of Syracuse, in
present-day Sicily, a Greek city-state then under threat from Rome, which explains the
sage's endeavor to create war machines. But his creativity was no match for the Roman military force. Syracuse was taken and Archimedes was killed during the final battle by an invading soldier.
Curiosities