Archimedes. 287-212 BC. Greek mathematician, engineer, and physicist.

"There are things which seem incredible to most men who have not studied Mathematics."

Archimedes: Eureka Moments, Earthly Shifts, and the Mathematical Genius of Geometry

"Soldier, stand away from my diagram." Supposedly spoken by Archimedes to the Roman soldier who killed him.



"Eureka! - I have found it!"

 


"Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth."



Perhaps the best indication of what Archimedes truly loved most is his request that his tombstone include a cylinder circumscribing a sphere, accompanied by the inscription of his amazing theorem that the sphere is exactly two-thirds of the circumscribing cylinder in both surface area and volume!" Laubenbacher and Pengelley, p. 95



The works of Archimedes are without exception, monuments of mathematical exposition; the gradual revelation of the plan of attack, the masterly ordering of the propositions, the stern elimination of everything not immediately relevant to the purpose, the finish of the whole, are so impressive in their perfection as to create a feeling akin to awe in the mind of the reader. A History of Greek Mathematics. 1921. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Heath.