Famous Mathematicians

Archimedes

Born 287 BC in Syracuse, Sicily
Died 212 BC in Syracuse, Sicily

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Sicily. It is thought that he travelled to Egypt and there he invented a device known as Archimedes' screw. This is a pump that allows water to travel uphill and is still used in many parts of the world today.

It has been told that the king of Syracuse, Hiero, thought his new gold crown was not pure gold. So he called on the services of the mathematician Archimedes to find out for sure. Archimedes knew that to find out what the crown was made of he would need to work out the volume of an irregular solid.

Archimedes noticed that when he stepped into the bath the water was spilling over the top, and suddenly realised that the volume of the spilt water was equal to his size (volume).

So if he put the crown into water he could find its volume. Then he had to obtain a block of pure gold the same weight as the crown. If the volume was the same then the crown was pure gold, not an alloy (fake). Archimedes is said to have jumped out the bath and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting ' Eureka, eureka!' – 'I've found it!'