DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69942#0045
ARCHIMEDES.
Archimedes was born at Syracuse, in Sicily, abotit
280 years B. C. He was the greatest geometrician of
antiquity. The discoveries he made in every branch of
the mathematics, are very numerous ; but it was in geo-
metry, that his genius principally shone. He discovered,
and demonstrated, various properties belonging to curved
lines, that were before unknown. He first taught to
measure the surface and the form of round bodies : to him
we are also indebted, for the mode of measuring the cir-
cle ; the near relation of the diameter to the circum-
ference ; the measure of the sphere ; of the cylinder ; the
cone ; and many other inventions no less curious in them-
selves, than useful in their application to the arts of
society. But what distinguished Archimedes as much as
his discoveries, was, the talent he evinced in explaining
them, and the spirit of invention which he continually
disclosed. Always steady in his pursuits, he never dis-
covered more force and invention, than in moments when
he was believed to be the most embarrassed. In short,
the methods which he was the first to discover, and of
which he made so admirable an use, have been the pro-
lific source of all our modern improvements in science.
Thus, the treatise entitled, De Arenario, contains all the
principles of numbers. The system of exhaustion, also
due to Archimedes, and which is a method of arriving at
truth, by incessantly removing the errors that appear to
separate us from it, is the root of the theory of infinite
35 ■ •
Archimedes was born at Syracuse, in Sicily, abotit
280 years B. C. He was the greatest geometrician of
antiquity. The discoveries he made in every branch of
the mathematics, are very numerous ; but it was in geo-
metry, that his genius principally shone. He discovered,
and demonstrated, various properties belonging to curved
lines, that were before unknown. He first taught to
measure the surface and the form of round bodies : to him
we are also indebted, for the mode of measuring the cir-
cle ; the near relation of the diameter to the circum-
ference ; the measure of the sphere ; of the cylinder ; the
cone ; and many other inventions no less curious in them-
selves, than useful in their application to the arts of
society. But what distinguished Archimedes as much as
his discoveries, was, the talent he evinced in explaining
them, and the spirit of invention which he continually
disclosed. Always steady in his pursuits, he never dis-
covered more force and invention, than in moments when
he was believed to be the most embarrassed. In short,
the methods which he was the first to discover, and of
which he made so admirable an use, have been the pro-
lific source of all our modern improvements in science.
Thus, the treatise entitled, De Arenario, contains all the
principles of numbers. The system of exhaustion, also
due to Archimedes, and which is a method of arriving at
truth, by incessantly removing the errors that appear to
separate us from it, is the root of the theory of infinite
35 ■ •