Archimedes: What Did He Do Besides Cry Eureka?

published

2011-12-27

rating

3

This book was more mathematical than I expected. It is really just a condensed and highly simplified translation of Archimedes more famous works. There are some genuinely good ideas found in his methods, however one can usually see quickly the modern replacement that is more effective. His study on levers was very insightful, but the more general concept of torques replaces all of his theorems without even adding much complexity. Other topics of focus were using the center of gravity to analyze figures geometrically and the determination of areas and surface areas. Sometimes it is valuable to see where the concepts of modern mathematics come from, and this is a good sampling of the work of a great founder.