The Math Research Project

ARCHIMEDES

Who was Archimedes?

Where is he from?

What did he do?

How is he related to math?

Why is he still being talked about today?

Question #1 + #2:

     Archimedes was a famous mathematician, physicist,astronomer,and engineer. He was born in Syracyse,Sicily.He was living from 287b.c. to 212b.c. His mathematical writings were barely known in antiquity. His inventions were.

Question #3 + #4: Archimedes discovered many things especially in math. He had his own method of π. His method was that he would draw a smaller polygon. Then he would draw a larger circle around the polygon. Next he would draw another polygon around the circle. This would give the upper and lower limits for a power of π. The more sides their are on the polygon, the more accurate the limiting value is. he stoped at ninety-six sides. He calculated all the sides. Each side obtained a value for PI between 223/71 (3.14085) and 22/7 (3.14286). This is also known as 3.1418. All the methods of PI are based on Archimedes's method. Also, he discovered PI can be used to calculate the area of a circle. He discovered, in his bath, the volume of an irregular shape can be found by measuring the volume of water. Then he ran down the street NAKED shouting "EUREKA" (ha ha). Archemides postulated that any magnetude added to itsself enough times it can exceed any given magnetude. This is known as the " Archemedian property of real numbers".

Question #5 Archimedes is still being talked about today. Why? Archimedes found so much work on math his work is still being used today. Some of his written work is still around but, most of it is not. Only seven of his treatises are known to exist. These were only through refrences. They were made to them by other authors.