He entered the bath; he went down in history when he came out: Who is Archimedes?

Because Archimedes is not just that image. On the contrary, he is one of the greatest mathematicians that history has ever witnessed. And many other things! He revolutionized mathematics. He developed the integral model. He realized the first law of hydrostatics with the buoyancy of the water, which he discovered in the bath (it is claimed that he came out of the bath by shouting "Eureka! Eureka!"). He unraveled the tongues of levers and reels. So much so that he stunned even Marcellus' Roman army with his mechanical inventions.

Archimedes was an aristocrat, the son of an astronomer father. However, little is known about the early stages of his life. He was born in the coastal town of Sicily, one of the Greek colonies of the period. He lived for a while in Alexandria, Egypt. Some of his works were transferred to the Middle Ages by the Greeks and Arabs, and the Roman historian Plutarch opened the door for some scenes from his life to come to the present day.

If you ask why Archimedes is important, there is only one answer: No one has succeeded in putting anything on top of what they have done in the fields of mathematics, statics, and hydrostatics for 1500 years!

What did he do? In his work called 'Measurement of the Circle', he was the first to calculate the famous pi number (3,142), which shows the ratio between a circle and its diameter, with a very small error; revealing how the area and volume of cylinders and other geometric shapes are calculated; designed the Archimedean screw bearing his name and used to remove the water accumulated on ships today; discovered the catapult (which especially annoyed the Romans with its invention); He had developed pulley and lever systems that made heavy loads no longer a nightmare. By the way, I don't think we need to count the fact that he introduced human beings to the famous principle of the buoyancy of water. And not forgetting; Let's add that he even attempted to calculate how many grains of sand the universe could be filled with, using the scientific data of his time.

He went down in history with his motto, 'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world', which he allegedly used to brag after he discovered the pulley and lever mechanisms. Although it couldn't shake our world, it enabled the easy launching of huge ships that hundreds of workers sweated to launch.

Archimedes, who was shown as one of the most assertive players in the league of mathematics along with Newton and Gauss, was known as a master, wise man, and great geometer of his time. Moreover, the fact that he is one of the rare mathematicians trained by the Greek civilization, which is fertile for the philosopher, distinguishes him from his contemporaries.

Archimedes, who devoted all his time to problem-solving, was so immersed in the world of numbers that, according to rumors, he often forgot to eat. Although deprived of the means of modern times such as notebooks or wood, he filled every flat space he could get with geometric shapes, from ashes left over from an extinguished fire to beaches. It is reported that he drew shapes on the olive oil he applied to his body to massage after the bath.

Archimedes, who owes most of his surviving fame to his friendship with Hierro, the King of Syracuse (Syracuse, a settlement in the south of Italy), was highly praised by the palace for finding solutions to the king's problems. So much so that, according to a rumor conveyed by the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius two hundred years after Archimedes' death; One day, the King wants to find out if his crown is made of pure gold because he suspects his jeweler and knocks on Archimedes' door. There is only one condition; He wants his suspicions to be cleared before the crown is damaged.

Archimedes looking for a solution to the problem goes to the bath. Sitting on one of the boats in the bath, he realizes that the amount of overflowing water is equal to the volume of the part of his body immersed in the water. It has solved the problem! With that excitement, he starts running towards his house, half naked, shouting. He repeats the same process at home. By immersing the pure gold and the crown, which are equal to the weight of the crown, separately in water, he measures the amount of water they carry and compares them with each other. The king is right in his suspicions. The volumes of overflowing water are not equal. Thus, this finding of Archimedes went down in history as the 'Archimedes Principle', which can be summarized as 'The lifting of an object partially or completely submerged in water with a force equal to its weight in the water'; While Archimedes became the architect of the science of hydrostatics, the jeweler was also beheaded.

Archimedes' findings are endless. However, his greatest contribution was in the field of Mathematics. Archimedes not only defined ellipses, cylinders, hyperboloids, paraboloids, spheres, and similar geometric objects but also successfully calculated their volumes. The methods he used in calculations will reach a certain systematicity only when great mathematicians such as Leibniz and Newton put forward the basic concepts of differential calculus in the 18th century. Archimedes, who was dissatisfied with the Greek numeral system, did not neglect to develop a unique numeral system to express larger numbers more easily.

Impressed by the extraordinary discoveries of this scientist in his palace, the King does not neglect to use Archimedes' potential for military purposes and asks this wise man to develop weapons for the defense of the city. It will not be wrong, the master of hydrostatics and mathematics will not delay in giving the weapons their due. In 212 BC, Roman General Marcellus took action by both land and sea to seize Syracuse. But when his soldiers came to the front of the city, he was almost nailed. After the walls defend the city, the catapults designed by Archimedes hurl huge stones at the Roman soldiers, the cranes, which are also the product of his brilliant mind, catch Roman ships in the water like fish and shake them off. Dozens of arrows fired from the bows he placed inside the walls were attacking the Roman soldiers. Seeing that he could not take the city at once, Marcellus decided to besiege. Eight months later, the Roman soldiers who managed to enter the city found Archimedes again ecstatically drawing figures in the sand. When the wise man they wanted to take offended the soldiers because his work was interfered with, he died on the spot with the sword blow of one of them. However, Plutarch recounts two other scenarios of the sage's death. According to this, when a Roman soldier came running after him to draw his sword and kill him, Archimedes continued to work without hesitation and either became the target of the sword or went to the presence of Marcellus, the new owner of Syracuse, with the circles, angles and mathematical tools he would use to calculate the size of the sun, who thought he was carrying a jewel. was killed by soldiers. Rumors vary.

However, what is certain is that; He introduced the formula that opens the door to the calculation of the volumes of the sphere and the cylinder with his work 'About the Sphere and the Cylinder', which he brought to life in 250 BC. Archimedes, who produced dozens of works and managed to establish the philosophy of integral calculations, which will only be officially named two thousand years after him, in ancient times, has managed to become one of the architects of today's civilization that deserves applause.