GeometryAnalysis & Calculus
Archimedes
c. 287 BC โ c. 212 BC ยท Ancient Greece (Syracuse)
He added up 'infinitely thin slices' two thousand years before calculus
Archimedes of Syracuse was a mathematician and inventor who found the areas and volumes bounded by curves by slicing them into infinitely many thin pieces and adding them up โ the seed of integration. He pinned down ฯ with remarkable precision, and legend has him leaping from his bath shouting 'Eureka!' upon grasping the principle of buoyancy.
Key contributions
- Computed areas and volumes by exhaustion (a forerunner of integration)
- A precise estimate of ฯ
- The principles of the lever and buoyancy