Synthesized answer
The passages note that the story of the burning mirror is "discredited" because it is not mentioned by major historians like Polybius, Livy, or Plutarch [1]. This shows that critically evaluating popular stories against historical accounts helps separate legend from fact. For Archimedes, the process reveals that while he likely constructed some burning instrument, its connection to destroying the Roman fleet is "more than doubtful" [1]. Thus, critical evaluation prevents us from accepting embellished traditions as literal truth.
This process also illuminates the nature of scientific and historical truth. The passages show that Archimedes himself valued pure mathematics over mechanical inventions, declining to leave written records of them [4]. Yet popular imagination seized on those inventions, creating stories that mix probable fact (e.g., Archimedes building a burning instrument) with improbable narrative (sinking ships) [1]. Historical truth requires weighing evidence from contemporary sources, while scientific truth—like Archimedes' hydrostatic principle—is grounded in reproducible discovery, as illustrated by the verified "Eureka" story [2]. The passages do not discuss the…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
ning to leave any written record of them except in the case of the σφαιροποιἶα ( Sphere-making ), as to which see below. As, however, these machines impressed the popular imagination, they naturally figure largely in the traditions about him. Thus he devised for Hiero engines of war which almost terrified the Romans, and which protracted the siege of Syracuse for three years. There is a story that he constructed a burning mirror which set the Roman ships on fire when they were within a bowshot of the wall. This has been discredited because it is not mentioned by Polybius, Livy or Plutarch;…
the question whether a crown made for him and purporting to be of gold, did not actually contain a proportion of silver. According to one story, Archimedes was puzzled till one day, as he was stepping into a bath and observed the water running over, it occurred to him that the excess of bulk occasioned by the introduction of alloy could be measured by putting the crown and an equal weight of gold separately into a vessel filled with water, and observing the difference of overflow. He was so overjoyed when this happy thought struck him that he ran home without his clothes, shouting εὒρηκα,…
Hiero asked him to give an illustration of his contention that a very great weight could be moved by a very small force. He is said to have fixed on a large and fully laden ship and to have used a mechanical device by which Hiero was enabled to move it by himself: but accounts differ as to the particular mechanical powers employed. The water-screw which he invented (see below) was probably devised in Egypt for the purpose of irrigating fields. Archimedes died at the capture of Syracuse by Marcellus, 212 B.C. In the general massacre which followed the fall of the city, Archimedes, while…
← Archimandrite 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica , Volume 2 Archimedes by Thomas Little Heath Archimedes, Screw of → See also Archimedes on Wikipedia ; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer . 359765 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica , Volume 2 — Archimedes Thomas Little Heath ARCHIMEDES ( c. 287–212 B.C. ), Greek mathematician and inventor, was born at Syracuse, in Sicily. He was the son of Pheidias, an astronomer, and was on intimate terms with, if not related to, Hiero, king of Syracuse, and Gelo his son. He studied at Alexandria and doubtless met there Conon of Samos, whom he admired as…
in 1773, which purports to have been sent by Archimedes to the mathematicians at Alexandria in a letter to Eratosthenes. Of lost works by Archimedes we can identify the following: (1) investigations on polyhedra mentioned by Pappus; (2) Άρχαί , Principles , a book addressed to Zeuxippus and dealing with the naming of numbers on the system explained in the Sand Reckoner ; (3) Περὶ ζυγῶν , On balances or levers ; (4) Κεντροβαρικά , On centres of gravity ; (5) Κατοπτρικά , an optical work from which Theon of Alexandria quotes a remark about refraction; (6) Έφόδιον , a Method , mentioned by…
More questions about this book
- Archimedes explicitly valued mathematical research over his famous mechanical contrivances. If you were explaining his perspective, why might someone consider practical, world-changing inventions "beneath the dignity of pure science," and what does this reveal about his ultimate intellectual priorities?
- Describe Archimedes' "Eureka!" discovery regarding Hiero's crown in terms a curious 10-year-old could understand. Beyond the simple explanation, what fundamental principle did he uncover, and why was it so significant that it laid the "foundation of that whole science" of hydrostatics?
- How do the "Eureka!" story (hydrostatics) and the "Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth" statement (mechanics) both illustrate Archimedes' unique approach to understanding and leveraging physical principles, even though they concern different domains of science?
- How did Archimedes' personal relationships, particularly with King Hiero and the mathematician Conon of Samos, likely influence not only the types of problems he investigated but also the dissemination and eventual legacy of his discoveries?