Archimedes inventions discovery

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When Marcellus [The Roman General] had placed the ships a bow shot off, the old man [Archimedes] constructed a sort of hexagonal mirror. The screw consists of a helical blade inside a hollow tube, which is set at an angle to a water source. He applied his scientific knowledge to practical needs, inventing war machines to defend Syracuse from Roman invasion.

In this instant, he recognized the solution to Hiero’s problem, jumped out of the tub at once, and ran all the way home without remembering to put his clothes on, all the while shouting, ‘Eureka, Eureka!’ – which in Greek means, ‘I have found it! Once the claw fastened itself to a ship’s underbelly, it would be tugged in an upward fashion and then released from a distance.

In 2005, the producers of Discovery Channel’s Superweapons of the Ancient World challenged engineers to replicate this arcane device on the condition they’d use only techniques and materials known to be available in the 3rd century BC. Within seven days, they were able to test their creation, and they did succeed in tipping over a model of a Roman ship to make it sink.

The Odometer

The same Vitruvius who accounted Archimedes’ “Eureka!” moment also reported Archimedes to have “mounted a large wheel of known circumference in a small frame, in much the same fashion as the wheel is mounted on a wheelbarrow; when it was pushed along the ground by hand it automatically dropped a pebble into a container at each revolution, giving a measure of the distance traveled.

When it was weighed, it had exactly the same mass as measured earlier. This device remains functional today, as more modern versions are utilized in wastewater treatment, hydroelectric power generation, and agriculture. Unlike the logarithmic spiral, this curve has the property that any two adjacent turns of the spiral are separated by the same distance at any point.

Archimedes’ study of spirals exemplified his remarkable ability to bridge the gap between pure mathematics and practical applications. His methods for dissecting curves and solids provided the groundwork for later mathematicians, such as Cavalieri and Newton. The lower end is place in the fluid and as the mechanism is rotated, the fluid flows up through the hollow screw.

Of course, these look more impressive. The HTF is then used to heat steam in a standard turbine generator. Although Syracuse eventually fell, the ingenuity of its defenses left a lasting impression, and Archimedes’ machines became legendary examples of ancient military innovation.

10. Such devices were made in Hellenic times, and it is probable that Archimedes made one, although less probable that he had the original idea for the mechanism.

Syracuse in the time of Archimedes

During Archimedes’ time Syracuse was ruled by a cousin, King Hiero II, who kept in close touch with the great engineer.

He placed at proper distances from the mirror other smaller mirrors of the same kind, which were moved by means of their hinges and certain plates of metal. Since 1980, Texas City, TX, USA uses eight 12-ft.-diameter Archimedes screws to manage rainstorm runoff. When the screw is rotated, either by a windmill or manual labor, the bottom end of the screw scoops water, then moves it through the casing against gravity until it escapes through the last thread to reach irrigation canals.

Today, the same principle is used in modern machinery for drainage and irrigation, and also in some types of high-speed tools.

A scroll compressor, widely used in HVAC, automotive, and other applications, is a component featuring a spiral scroll. Archimedes determined this by inscribing and circumscribing a circle with regular polygons whose sides increase in number.

He noted that the perimeter of a polygon approaching that of a circle from within is less than that of a circle and that the perimeter of a polygon approaching a circle from without is greater than the circle’s.

His contributions are still with us in textbooks, engineering, and even the Marine Corps Hymn. Archimedes may have died, but his words and ideas live on, not only in texts and on monuments, but in all aspects of science and engineering.