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Archimedes

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Abstract

Archimedes was a Hellenistic mathematician, astronomer, inventor and engineer. He was born in Syracuse around 287 B.C., and he was a leading scientist and inventor in the Greco-Roman world. He is credited with designing several innovative machines (Syracuse is located on the island of Sicily in Southern Italy. It was an independent Greek city state in the third century B.C.).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Syracuse is located on the island of Sicily in Southern Italy. It was an independent Greek city state in the third century B.C.

  2. 2.

    The Greek word “Eureka” (εὕρηκα) means “I have found it”.

  3. 3.

    The origin of the word “odometer” is from the Greek words “οδοζ” (meaning journey) and “μετρον” meaning (measure).

  4. 4.

    The figures given here are for the distance of one Roman mile which is shorter than a standard mile on the Imperial system. An Imperial mile is 5,280 ft, whereas the Roman mile is 5,024 ft (i.e. 400*π*4).

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag London

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O’Regan, G. (2013). Archimedes. In: Giants of Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5340-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5340-5_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5339-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5340-5

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