Archimedes, the Mathematician
... least two stories famous. In one story, he was asked by Hiero II to determine whether a crown was pure gold or was alloyed with silver. Archimedes was perplexed, until one day, observing the overflow of water was proportional to the amount of his body in the water, he found the means to solve his problem. Delighted at his discovery, he ran home without his clothes, shouting "Eureka," which means "I have found it." In the other story he is said to have told Hiero, in illustration of the principle of the lever, "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the world." He invented machines of war so resourceful that the besieging armies of Marcellus, a Roman general, were held off by the catapults, cranes, and mirrors that Archimedes invented. When the Romans finally broke the siege, Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier after telling him "Don't disturb my circles," a reference to a figure he had outlined on the sand. Archimedes also formulated many great mathematical theories along with his inventio...