Archimedes ship series#

The ships were moored within bow and arrow range (in ancient Greece, anywhere from 200 to 1,000 feet (about 60.96 to 304.8 meters)).

Archimedes ship series#

Instead, the death ray was actually a series of mirrors that reflected concentrated sunlight onto Roman ships. One can imagine the Roman soldiers' terror-widened eyes as the death ray came into view and made an increasingly high-pitched hum as it powered up before suddenly unleashing a deadly laser upon the ships, reducing them to atoms in one massive burst. The name evokes thoughts of some huge, clumsy steampunk contraption pushed to the edge of the Syracusian walls. These war machines were complex, but perhaps the most effective (and coolest sounding) of Archimedes' instruments of destruction was the death ray. Archimedes used catapults and heavy timbers to hurl objects at the ships in the distance. Outside, the claw was capable of picking up entire Roman ships and plunging them into the sea. One of the war machines Archimedes created was a giant iron claw, operated by virtually the entire population of Syracuse from inside the city's walls. Archimedes used his knowledge of physics to fend off Roman ships approaching the fortified walls of Syracuse. One of Archimedes' more famous quotes is, 'Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the world'. When the Roman army set sail to lay siege on his home in the year 214, Archimedes turned his attention from calculations to finding new and inventive ideas for dealing death to Roman legions. Aside from his travels to Egypt for his formal education (read more about that in 'Did the ancient Greeks get their ideas from the Africans?'), Archimedes spent his life in Syracuse. in the city-state of Syracuse, then a part of ancient Greece, in what is modern-day Sicily. His death ray is said to have proven particularly effective.Īrchimedes was born in 287 B.C.

But Archimedes' war machines had kept the Romans at bay. The soldier had been two years in coming the Romans had held Archimedes' home of Syracuse under siege for two years. The soldier flew into a rage and beat the 75-year-old genius to death. Archimedes, in the thick of determining a geometry proof using figures drawn in the sand on his floor, dismissed the stranger: 'Do not disturb my diagrams,' Archimedes told him. A Roman soldier sent to capture Archimedes entered his home. Archimedes was so gripped by excitement at his breakthrough that he ran naked through the streets shouting 'Eureka!' And his death came from a lack of comprehension that he was in danger. When he came up with his principle of hydrostatics, he'd been in the bath. You can thank Archimedes for steel ships and hot air balloons.Īrchimedes was every bit a mad genius, and he was socially handicapped by the breadth of his intellect. He concluded that objects lose an amount of weight when they're in water equal to the weight of the fluid they displace (Archimedes' principle of hydrostatics). But he also created calculus proofs 2,000 years before calculus itself was invented. He is responsible for calculating pi that alone would have assured him a place in the annals of history. For more than 50 years, Archimedes churned out answers to great mathematic and practical questions. The Greek mathematician Archimedes is one good example that all geniuses are not equal. Some geniuses propel advancement more than others.