Archimedes
Levers, buoyancy, an approximation of pi, and the beginnings of calculus.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 75 years
- Known to
- ± 5 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Archimedes of Syracuse establishes the law of the lever and the principle of buoyancy, calculates pi by inscribing and circumscribing 96-sided polygons, finds the volume of a sphere, and in the Method — recovered in 1906 from a scraped-off palimpsest — uses an argument close to integration. He also builds war machines that hold off a Roman siege for two years. He is killed in 212 BCE by a Roman soldier while working on a diagram.