Take it to the limit one more time – a history of calculus III

In everyday European discourse there are only a small number of scientists whose names are widely known within the general populus–Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Curie–and even then the people only know very vaguely why these scientists are celebrated and most of what they think they know consists almost entirely of clichés, myths and legends. A figure from Ancient Greece, who very much belongs in the category is Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287–c.212 BCE) celebrated as mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer. Real facts about his life are exceedingly rare but the clichés abound, ‘Eureka’, ‘Give me a place to stand…’, ‘Do not disturb my circles’. There are legends concerning the weapons that he as an engineer designed and used in the defence of Syracuse against the Romans, some of which are more myth than legend. Archimedes feature in this series as a mathematician and with one small exception I shall be ignoring his work as an engineer, physicist and…