May 27, 2005
Scientists analyze Archimedes text at accelerator center
Keay Davidson in the San Francisco Chronicle:
A super-X-ray beam in Menlo Park is literally shedding new light on the achievements of an ancient titan of math and engineering who lived almost 23 centuries ago.
Just as today's scientists learn the latest developments from journals such as Science and Nature, scholars circa A.D. 1000 consulted scientific writings etched in ink on goatskin parchments. A millennium later, time has seriously eroded these inky ruminations of scholars who perhaps scribbled within earshot of chanting monks, feudal lords, suffering serfs and armor- clanking knights.
Those old writings are being recovered thanks to scientists at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. With excruciating slowness and care, they have begun using a beam of X-ray radiation no thicker than a human hair to scan a goatskin parchment known as the Archimedes Palimpsest. It's of unusual interest because it shows how advanced mathematics -- the so-called Queen of the Sciences -- was in ancient times, at least in the mind of a legendary mathematician.
More here.
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This is a fascinating article about one of the most remarkable physicists and mathematicians in history; a true "genius" if there ever was one.
The book "Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists" by editors John Daintith, Sarah Mitchell and Elizabeth Tootill, Facts on File, Inc. New York, 1981, has this entry on Archimedes: "ARCHIMEDES (b. 287 bc; Syracuse, now in Sicily; d. 212 bc; Syracuse) Greek mathematician.
Archimedes' father was an astronomer and he himself inherited an interest in the subject. He was educated in Alexandria and spent most of the rest of his life in Syracuse under the patronage of King Hieron. Archimedes was without question the greatest mathematician and scientist that classical Greek civilization produced and is usually considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He was held in very high regard even by his contemporaries, and Karl Frriedrich Gauss thought that only Issac Newton was Archimedes' equal as a mathematician. Archimedes was as much an applied mathematician as a pure mathematician. He was very much interested in putting his theoretical discoveries to practical use and is known to have been skilled in making his own equipment and carrying out his own experiments. It is no exaggeration to describe Archimedes as the creator of the science of mechanics. Naturally before his time many isolated facts had been discovered, but it was only with him that mechanics became a unified body of theory capable of yielding new and unexpected practical applications.
Archimedes was able to find methods of determining the center of gravity of a variety of bodies. He also gave the first general theory of levers, and organized a practical demonstration to show how, with a suitable series of levers, a very small force is capable of moving a very large weight. He amazed his contemporaries by arranging for the King of Syracuse to move a large ship simply by pressing a small lever. In connection with his work on levers Archimedes made one of his famous statements, 'Give me a place to stand on and I will move the Earth.' Archimedes also had a practical interest in optics, although no writings of his on the subject have come down to us. He put all this new-found theoretical knowledge to deadly effect when Syracuse was besieged by the Romans, by designing and building a variety of war machines. Among these were enormous mirrors to focus the Sun's rays and set fire to the Roman ships, and a variety of catapults.
Archimedes also successfully applied his scientific discoveries in hydrostatics. He designed all sorts of pumps, and the Archimedean water screw is stll widely used. But his most famous practical success was in solving a problem presented to him by King Hieron. Hieron wished to know weather a newly made crown, which was supposed to be of pure gold was, as he suspected, partly silver. Archimedes solved the problem by grasping the concept of relative density. If the crown was pure gold it would displace less water than if it was partly silver. So by immersing successively the crown itself and pieces of gold and silver of equal weight in full containers of water and observing the amount of water each displaced, Archimedes was able to show that the crown was indeed not made of pure gold. One of the famous stories associated with Archimedes tells how this occurred to him when he was getting into his bath and observed how the more of his body was immersed the more water overflowed from the bath. He saw instantly how to solve his problem, leaped from the bath, and rushed through the streets, stark naked, shouting 'Eureka' ( I have found it).....
Archimedes was put to death by a Roman soldier when the Romans, under general Marcellus, finally successfully besieged Syracuse..."
This remarkable intellect, long before Christ, left humanity and civilization with all this remarkable knowledge free! We do not have to pay royalties to monopolies or cartels, whose "intellectual property rights" are protected by the full force and power of the United States government do we? They do not go to federal court and demand money paid to an "Archimedes' trust" or an "Archimedes' CD" every time an engineer designs a boat or ship or submarine and uses the principle discovered by him, that "all objects are buoyed up with a force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced" do we? He made these remarkable discoveries and gave them to civilization for free. I say thank you to this remarkable genius of whom most people still remain totally ignorant.
Winfield J. Abbe, Ph.D., Physics
Posted by: Winfield J. Abbe | May 27, 2005 7:24:09 AM
Did Kant then steal his description of metaphysics as the "Queen of the Sciences" from advanced mathematics?
Posted by: Timothy Don | May 27, 2005 3:45:22 PM
Hi,
Very nice and fantastic article.Archimedes was able to find methods of determining the center of gravity of a variety of bodies.
Posted by: x-ray fluorescence | Jan 16, 2009 4:03:28 AM
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