#hydrostatics

Simon Stevin – Scientist of the Day

Simon Stevin, a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and engineer, was born in Bruges in 1548 and died in 1620; we have no exact birth or death dates.

LJS 186: Reverendi Patris Adami Adamandi disquisitiones physicomathematicae. Written in Florence in 1667 and 1668

Collection of scientific treatises with an emphasis on mathematical demonstration by the students of Adamus Adamandus (pseudonym of Adam Kochánski) at the Collegio Florentino, the Jesuit college in Florence. The third treatise, on underwater navigation, is described as a demonstration by Antonio Maria Salvini, a student at the Collegio from 1665 to 1669. Other treatises address fluid mechanics, perpetual motion, the possibility of human flight with mechanical wings, communication over distance with telescopes and lanterns, improvements in mechanical timekeeping, and the geometry of cross forms.

Archimedes was born 2,305 years ago this year. Most famous for jumping out of his bathtub shouting ‘Eureka!’ (I have found it), Archimedes is considered the greatest scientist and mathematician of the classical Greek era. He was educated in Alexandria, and lived in his hometown of Syracuse, and seemed to develop his interest in science from his father, who was an astronomer. Some of his most noteworthy work includes determining the centre of gravity of a variety of bodies, his work with hydrostatics (which led to the famous bathtub incident), and developing the first general theory of levers to show how, with a suitable series of levers, a very small force is capable of moving a very large weight.

Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier when the Romans, under the general Marcellus, besieged Syracuse. Marcellus was not happy about this, as he respected Archimedes and wanted him to be protected. Archimedes was apparently drawing mathematical symbols in the sand when he died. Now that’s what we call dedication.