Archimedes

Archimedes (about 287-about 212 BC), Greek scientist. Archimedes was born at Syracuse in Sicily and lived most of his life there after studying in Alexandria.

He made many discoveries in mathematics such as how to work out the area of a circle.

He was one of the first people to do experiments to check if his ideas in science were true.

He discovered why levers worked and he invented a device called the Archimedean screw. This was used to raise water from one level to another.

He also discovered Archimedes's principle. This explains why a piece of wood will float and a piece of lead will not.

A famous story is told about him. One day, Archimedes was having a bath. He noticed that the level of the water in the bath rose when he sat in it, and he thought out what had happened. The water had been pushed out of place by his body. This solved a problem he was working on and he leaped out of the bath, forgetting his clothes, and ran into the street shouting 'Eureka!' ('I have solved it!').

See JEANNE BENDICK Archimedes and the Door to Science