Only thing I stuck in the memory of him is the famous story of when he discover density of gold and silver alloys while ranting naked, during his bath.
Dan,
Take a look at my thread on Archimedes and a manuscript that was found.
archimedes was truly a genius.
i wonder if peopl eare still so devout to their studies/passions as he was
========
Sometimes answers to problems come unexpectedly. Try presenting a problem, forget about it, then later during the day or next day, you will have your answer. Ops, your question was what is your take on Archimedes? I don’t know.
I imagine Archimedes to be a very beautiful person. A devoted scholar, lover of mathematics. Have you heard the supposed story of his death?
Plutarch (AD 45-120), Parallel Lives: Marcellus
"But nothing afflicted Marcellus so much as the death of Archimedes, who was then, as fate would have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having fixed his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation, he never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken. In this transport of study and contemplation, a soldier, unexpectedly coming up to him, commanded him to follow to Marcellus; which he declining to do before he had worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier, enraged, drew his sword and ran him through. Others write that a Roman soldier, running upon him with a drawn sword, offered to kill him; and that Archimedes, looking back, earnestly besought him to hold his hand a little while, that he might not leave what he was then at work upon inconclusive and imperfect; but the soldier, nothing moved by his entreaty, instantly killed him. Others again relate that, as Archimedes was carrying to Marcellus mathematical instruments, dials, spheres, and angles, by which the magnitude of the sun might be measured to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and thinking that he carried gold in a vessel, slew him. Certain it is that his death was very afflicting to Marcellus; and that Marcellus ever after regarded him that killed him as a murderer; and that he sought for his kindred and honoured them with signal favours. "
It is said that Archimedes last words were "Μη μου τους κύκλους τάραττε " Dont disturb my circles.
I never heard of Archmedies until i play the video game Spartan Warrior. And I saw him as a politician, inventor, and very old.
He was a skinny bastard sophist and very ugly.
I am starting to fall in love with his unpreciated writings.