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Archimedes Contributions

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Submitted By madbrownkid
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Archimedes of Syracuse is quite easily one of the greatest scientists, if not the greatest scientist to ever walk this earth. He is one of the greatest scientists because of the things that he discovered at such an early time (287 BC – 212 BC). They are still important and relevant today for modern science, and even 1800 years after Archimedes had died they were important for Newton. Archimedes has made so many major contributions to our understanding of science that scientists still can’t believe he did all of them. One of the many major contributions he made to physics was that he discovered the laws of levers and pulleys, which allow us to move heavy objects using small forces. This was a very important discovery because even though we may not realize it there are inventions around us that are invented because of Archimedes. An important example of a lever is something as simple as a wheel barrel, we lift it up and apply force and suddenly the load feels lighter because of the fulcrum (pivot). Archimedes also discovered one of the most fundamental discoveries of physics which was the center of gravity. The understanding of center of gravity is extremely important for things such as objects to remain stable. Race cars have a low center of gravity which makes them more stable, compared to a monster truck which has a high center of gravity and ultimately gives it a higher chance of rolling and lowers there stability. Archimedes wasn’t done with these discoveries that are fundamental for our world today, he also invented the sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics. These again are used today, hydrostatics which is the pressure exerted by a fluid due to its static head. An example of hydrostatics is the use of the pressure exerted by a fluid to its static head to convert in kinetic energy in a penstock of the hydro power plant to generate electricity in a pelton wheel turbine. He also showed how exponents could be used to write bigger numbers than had ever been thought of before. Archimedes may have arguably been the greatest scientist of all time, because of all the fundamental discoveries that he made that were so ahead of his time, and that are still used today.
References
http://www.famousscientists.org/archimedes/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/32827/Archimedes-principle
http://www.schoolphysics.co.uk/age11-14/Mechanics/Statics/text/Stability_/index.html

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