Few certain details remain about the life of

antiquity's greatest mathematician, Archimedes. We know

he was born in 287 B.C.E. around Syracuse from a report

about 1400 years after the fact. Archimedes tells about his

father, Pheidias, in his book The Sandreckoner. Pheidias

was an astronomer, who was famous for being the author of

a treatise on the diameters of the sun and the moon.

Historians speculate that Pheidias' profession explains why

Archimedes chose his career. Some scholars have

characterized Archimedes as an aristocrat who actively

participated in the Syracusan court and may have been

related to the ruler of Syracuse, King Hieron II. We also

know Archimedes died in 212 B.C.E. at the age of 75 in

Syracuse. It is said that he was killed by a Roman soldier,

who was offended by Achimedes, while the Romans seized

Syracuse. Archimedes had a wide variety of interests, which

included encompassing statics, hydrostatics, optics,

astronomy, engineering, geometry, and......

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Title: Archimedes
Approximate Word Count: 608
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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