After returning to Syracuse, he insisted on keeping in touch with scholars in Alexandria and exchanging scientific research results. He inherited the rigor of Euclid's proof theorem, but his intelligence and achievements were far higher than Euclid's. He closely linked mathematical research with mechanics and mechanics, and used mathematics to study practical problems such as mechanics. Protecting mechanical giants and trebuchets in the battle of Syracuse is the most vivid example, which strongly proves the truth that knowledge is power.
During his study in Alexandria, he often walked along the Nile. In the season of long drought and no rain, he saw farmers laboriously pumping water from the Nile to irrigate the land, so he created a spiral water pump to take water from the river through spiral rotation, which saved farmers a lot of effort. Not only used today, but also the original prototype of all propellers used on water and in the air at present.
Archimedes elaborated on the principle of lever in his book On Lever (unfortunately lost). King Syracuse once doubted the power of leverage. He asked Archimedes to move a new three-masted ship full of heavy objects and passengers. Archimedes asked craftsmen to install a set of exquisitely designed pulleys and levers on the front, back, left and right sides of the ship. Archimedes told 100 people to grab a rope in front of the big ship. He asked the king to pull a rope, and the ship actually slipped slowly into the sea. The crowd cheered, and the king announced happily in public: "From now on, I ask everyone to believe Asmid no matter what they say!" " "
Archimedes once said: Give me a small fulcrum and put a lever, and I can move the earth. If Archimedes had a place to stand, could he really move the earth? Maybe I can. But according to scientists' calculation, if there are corresponding conditions, Archimedes' lever must be 88× 102 1 mile long! Of course, this is impossible at present.
What fascinated and admired Archimedes most was that Archimedes discovered a basic scientific principle from the case that intelligence broke the golden crown.
The king asked the goldsmith to make a new pure gold crown. But he suspected that the goldsmith had adulterated the gold crown. However, from the point of view of weight and appearance, there is nothing wrong with the finished crown. The king handed this difficult problem to Archimedes.
Archimedes thought about this problem day and night. One day, he went to the bathhouse to take a bath. When he sat down in the bathhouse slowly, the water overflowed from the basin. He looked at the overflowing water and suddenly shouted, "I know!" " "I ran home naked. It turned out that he had come up with a way.
Archimedes put the golden crown in a jar full of water, and some water overflowed. He picked up the crown, filled it with water, put a piece of gold as heavy as the crown into the water, and some water overflowed. He compared two kinds of water and found that the first one overflowed more than the second one. So he decided to mix the gold crown with silver. After the experiment, he worked out the weight of silver. The goldsmith was stunned when he announced his discovery.
The significance of this experiment is far greater than finding out that the goldsmith cheated the king. Archimedes discovered the principle that the weight of an object in a liquid is equal to the weight of the liquid he discharged. This principle is named after Archimedes. Until modern times, people are still using this principle to measure the ship's load.
In 2 15 BC, Roman general Maceiras led a large army and brought warships to the historic city of Syracuse. Maceiras thinks Syracuse Gu Chenghui Jr. is self-defeating. Hearing the great reputation of the Roman army, the people in the city did not surrender in Kaesong?
However, the question and answer of the Roman army was a series of terrible darts, arrows and stones. The small shields of the Romans could not resist countless stones, large and small. They were killed and ran for their lives.
Suddenly, countless giant crane-type mechanical giants protrude from the city wall. They grabbed Roman warships, hung them in mid-air, and finally threw them on rocks by the sea, or threw them heavily into the sea. The ship was wrecked and people died. Maceiras was lucky not to get hurt, but he was frightened. He completely lost his pride when he first came and became confused. Finally, we had to order a retreat and sail the boat to a safe place.
The Roman army suffered heavy casualties and was stunned by the ancient Syracuse. But where are the enemies? They can't even find a shadow.
Maceiras finally said with emotion to the soldiers around him: "How? In the face of this geometric giant with hundreds of hands, we have to give up fighting. He threw our warships as a game. In a flash, he threw so many darts, arrows and stones at us. Isn't he better than the mythical giant with a hundred hands? "
Archimedes, who is over 70 years old, is a world-famous great scientist. He used levers, pulleys, cranks, screws and gears to defend the ancient city of Sila. He not only used manpower to start the machine for projecting darts, arrows and stone bullets, but also used wind and water power, and used knowledge about balance and center of gravity, curves and the use of force from a distance. No wonder Maceiras easily found the reason for his fiasco. That night, Maceiras approached the city wall overnight. He thinks Asmid's machine can't work. Unexpectedly, Asmid had already prepared short-distance instruments such as trebuchets, and forced back the Roman army's attack again. The Romans were scared to death. When they saw the wooden beam or rope on the wall, they ran away screaming, "Archimedes is coming."
According to legend, Archimedes also used the sunlight gathered by parabolic mirrors to illuminate Roman ships that invaded Syracuse and set them on fire. Many ships in Rome were burned, but the Romans could not find the cause of the fire. More than 900 years later, a scientist made a concave mirror according to Archimedes' method introduced in history books. He successfully set wood 45 meters away from the mirror and melted aluminum 42 meters away from the mirror. Therefore, many historians of science and technology usually regard Archimedes as the ancestor of human utilization of solar energy.
Maceiras was repeatedly attacked when it attacked Syracuse. In desperation, he left the sea near Syracuse with his fleet. They cut off the city from the outside world by encircling but not attacking. Three years later, they took advantage of the carelessness of the residents and finally occupied the ancient city of Sila in 2 12 BC. Maceiras admired Archimedes' cleverness, ordered him not to get hurt, and sent a soldier to invite him. At this time, Archimedes didn't know that the gate had been broken, but he still stared at the geometry on the chessboard. When the soldier's sword pointed at him, he covered the board with his body and shouted, "Don't touch my figure!" " "He asked to prove the principle before he left, but he angered the reckless and ignorant soldier. He stabbed the 75-year-old scientist to death with his sword. Maceiras flew into a rage. He executed the soldier, comforted Archimedes' relatives, held a memorial service for him and built a mausoleum. Archimedes was honored as "the God of Mathematics" by later mathematicians. Among the three most important mathematicians in human history, Archimedes is the first, and the other two are Newton and Gauss.