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July 13, 2006 Archimedes was quite probably the world's first absent minded professor. His father was an astronomer and most scholars believe that Archimedes studied under Euclid, a pioneer in the science of geometry, so he had a strong and rich intellectual background. For Archimedes only the mind was important and the flesh and physical world were irrelevant. He lived in a mental world of plane equilibrium, parabolas, and estimating surface areas of spheres and circles. His mind was so absorbed with these problems that he paid little attention to personal hygiene and spent his days diagramming geometry problems in the dirt. After months of his mind grinding away, inventing integral calculus and solving difficult geometry theorems, Archimedes developed an intolerable body odor and the townspeople of Syracuse on the then Greek island of Sicily complained. Fortunately for them, the emperor Hiero II was Archimedes's cousin and he had the power to make the genius take a bath. Archimedes sat in the tub and so much grime had accumulated that it floated to the top and made an automatic ring. He started working on problems by diagramming them in the grime ring around the tub and suddenly he had an epiphany--the relationship between bouyancy and water displacement. Oh, how excited he was by this discovery. He jumped out of the tub and ran up and down the streets of his walled city shouting, "eureka! eureka!" meaning I have discovered. He was still naked while he ran past the women and children, the laborers, the merchants, and the baker; but it didn't matter--nakedness was a physical realm of being and all Archimedes cared about was the world of the mind. During Archimedes lifespan (287 BC-211 BC), there were three main powers in the Mediterranean world. Rome was expanding rapidly, but the Carthaginian Empire, based in North Africa, stood in the way. Greece was also a power but consisted of independent city states destined to be conquered. The wars between Carthage and Rome are famous. Hannibal invaded Rome directly and marched through Italy. The end result of the wars between these two powers was in doubt for much of the third century BC and predictably the Greek city states, including Syracuse, diplomatically changed hands depending on which one was winning the war at the time. Hiero II died and was replaced by a teenaged nephew, Hieronynous. Hieronynous allied with the Carthaginians who had just defeated the Romans in a major battle. Roman sympathizing Syracusians assassinated Hieronynous and a Civil War broke out with the pro-Carthaginian side winning. Unfortunately for Syracuse, Rome crushed Carthage and forced Syracuse to pay tribute. Syracuse reneged on the deal and the Romans sent Marcus Marcellus and his legion to conquer Sicily. Syracuse was an impregnable city. One side of the city faced the ocean where steep cliffs hampered any attempt to invade the city from here. It was also surrounded by a wall and had a fresh water spring so the water supply could not be cut off. But most importantly, they had Archimedes who used his brains to embarrass the brawn of the Roman army. Marcus Marcellus ordered sixty battleships to attack the seawall of Syracuse, while his army attacked the inland wall. Although Archimedes did not invent the catapault, he was able to engineer much improved versions of them that put the Roman catapaults to shame. One catapault doubled as a dunking machine and was nicknamed the claw. If any Roman ships managed to dodge the boulders flung, the claw would be used to grab the ship and sink it. Archimedes also used mirrors angled toward the sun that were able to concentrate the sunlight into a primitive kind of laser beam which set the ships on fire and must have shocked the superstitious Romans. Archimedes used simple knowledge of geometry and physics to humble the mighty Romans. Marcus Marcellus gave up and satisfied himself with conquering the rest of the island. He beheaded two thousand Carthaginians supporters and ravaged the countryside. The Romans never did defeat Syracuse fair and square. During a drunken festival, the Romans bribed a Syracusian gate keeper to leave the gate unlocked, and they swarmed into the city, looting, raping, and murdering civilians. But the soldiers had special instructions to capture Archimedes alive because Marcus coveted his engineering skills. Archimedes was discovered by a Roman soldier. As usual, he was drawing geometry problems in the dirt and he refused to acknowledge the soldier's presence--after all, the threat was part of the physical world and he was engrossed in a mental calculation. Not knowing who he was, the soldier ran him through with his sword. It was a sad end to the world's first absent minded professor. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. www.mark-gelbart.com Email: agelbart@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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