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Blogpost 1: Archimedes

Who was Archimedes?

To begin, Archimedes was born in 287 BC in Syracuse, Italy. He was a Mathematician, a Physicist, an Inventor, and an Astronomer. Considered not only one of the greatest Mathematicians of his time, but of all time, his contributions to the field were many. He gave a numerical approximation of pi, found an equation for the circumference of a circle, found an equation for the area of a circle, developed the Archimedean property, found the volume of a sphere, and even proposed an estimate of the number of grains of sand that would fill the universe - and these were only his contributions to Mathematics. 

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, studied in Alexandria, and then returned to Syracuse to continue his work. He died around the age of 75 during the Second Punic War. Syracuse held against the siege of the Romans for 2 years before finally falling, and Archimedes played no small role in that. Due to his contributions, the Roman commander had great respect for him, and sent his soldiers to capture Archimedes alive. Supposedly, when the soldiers found Archimedes, some of his work was etched into the sand near him. Fearing that his work would be ruined, Archimedes told the Roman soldiers "Do not disturb my circles". Apparently, they didn't take too kindly to his request, as they decided to kill him instead of delivering him to the general as they were instructed. 

In honor of his contributions to the field of Mathematics, the Fields Medal carries his image. Leibniz, another prolific Mathematician, paid Archimedes a compliment by saying "He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times". 

Comments

  1. John GoldenSeptember 30, 2017 at 7:24 PM

    These posts are evaluated by:
    Clear- if this shows up as an issue, it’s usually about spelling, grammar or structure.
    Coherent- has a point and an objective
    Complete- looks like 2 hours of work, attends to necessary bits for the point. Sharing your thinking, always a good idea. Cite images or websites you used or referenced.
    Content- math and teaching ideas are accurate. (Does not mean no math mistakes. Mistakes are how we get better!)
    Consolidated- writing has an end. Synthesize the ideas, pose remaining questions, etc. Sometimes I recommend one or more of: 1) What did I say/do?, 2) Why is it important?, 3) What comes next?

    On first writing these are just for feedback. At the end of the semester you pick 3 posts for exemplars. Those can be revised from feedback or just ones you write taking into account the feedback now.

    Complete is the main issue here. You could expand on the content: history, get into some detail of the math he did (circle or sphere, maybe). Details like what the Fields Medal is, etc.

    3/5

    ReplyDelete

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