Archimedes

Introduction & Top Questions
His life
His works
His influence

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Portrait of Archimedes by Giuseppe Nogari shows an elderly man with white hair and beard, holding a compass, gazing downward, set against a dark background.

A red sphere fits perfectly inside a transparent blue cylinder, illustrating Archimedes' relationship between the surface area and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing cylinder, with labeled formulas and dimensions.

Map of the Greco-Roman world highlighting the birthplaces of notable ancient mathematicians, marked with the pi symbol and labeled with their names. Cities such as Athens, Alexandria, Syracuse, and Miletus are shown around the Mediterranean, with modern country boundaries outlined. An inset provides detail for the region of Greece and western Anatolia.

Archimedes' parabolic segment calculation

At a Glance

Archimedes summary

Quizzes

Numbers and Mathematics

Beet. Beta vulgaris. Sugar beet. Two rows of harvested beets.

History of Scientists, Inventors, and Inventions Quiz

Related Questions

Between which two values did Archimedes show that pi lies?
Did Archimedes study in Alexandria, Egypt?
How can Archimedes’ principle be used to find the volume of an irregularly shaped object?
How can weighing an object in air and water help determine its density?
How did Archimedes calculate the surface area of a sphere?
How did Archimedes estimate the value of pi?
How did Archimedes find the area of a segment of a parabola?
How did Archimedes’ principle explain why objects float or sink?
How did Archimedes study centers of gravity?
How did Archimedes use infinite geometric series in the Quadrature of the Parabola?
How did Archimedes use the law of the lever in mathematics?
How did Archimedes use thin slices to compare the volumes of solids?
How did Archimedes’ work influence the later development of calculus?
How did the Archimedes claw reportedly attack Roman ships?
How did the method of exhaustion help Archimedes find areas and volumes?
How do fish use swim bladders to control buoyancy?
How does a submarine use ballast tanks to dive and surface?
How does the Archimedes screw raise water?
How many treatises by Archimedes survive in Greek?
How was the method of exhaustion a forerunner of integral calculus?
What did Archimedes’ mechanical method use to discover geometric results?
What does the story of Archimedes refusing to leave his diagrams say happened?
What enormous-number problem did Archimedes explore in The Sand-Reckoner?
What modern uses does the Archimedes screw have in wastewater treatment?
What properties of the Archimedean spiral did Archimedes study?
What relationship did Archimedes discover between a parabolic segment and a triangle with the same base and height?
When and where did Archimedes die?
When did the Romans lay siege to Syracuse?
Where and when was Archimedes born?
Where did Archimedes spend most of his life?
Which Roman general captured Syracuse?
Which books did Archimedes write about spheres and cylinders?
Which heliocentric theory did Archimedes describe in The Sand-Reckoner?
Who found Archimedes’ tomb after it had become overgrown?
Why can a steel ship float even though steel is denser than water?
Why did Archimedes prefer theoretical work over practical inventions?
Why did Archimedes say that his mechanical method was not a complete mathematical proof?
Why did Archimedes use inscribed and circumscribed polygons to approximate pi?
Why did Archimedes want a sphere inside a cylinder engraved on his tomb?
Why did Marcus Claudius Marcellus regret Archimedes’ death?
Why was Syracuse important in Archimedes’ life?
What accomplishments was Archimedes known for?
What specific works did Archimedes create?
What is known about Archimedes’ family, personal life, and early life?
Where was Archimedes born? How and where did he die?
What was Pythagoras’s profession? When and how did it begin?
What was Pythagoras known for?
When and where was Pythagoras born? When did Pythagoras die?
What was Pythagoras’s religion?
What is Ptolemy best known for?
How did Ptolemy impact the world?

Science Mathematics

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External Websites

ABC listen - Self Improvement: Archimedes' Eureka and other moments
Lemelson-MIT - Archimedes
Bellarmine University - About Eureka!
Famous Scientists - Biography of Archimedes
American Society of Mechanical Engineers - Archimedes
Story of Mathematics - Archimedes of Syracuse ï¿½ Eureka and The Principle
PBS - NOVA - The Archimedes Palimpsest
World History Encyclopedia - Biography of Archimedes

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Archimedes - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Archimedes - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Archimedes

Greek mathematician and inventor

Written by

Gerald J. Toomer

Professor Emeritus of the History of Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Translator and editor of Diocles' On Burning Mirrors; author of John Seldon: A Life in...

Gerald J. Toomer

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 3, 2026 •History

Archimedes (born c. 287 bce, Syracuse, Sicily [Italy]—died 212/211 bce, Syracuse) was the most famous mathematician and inventor in ancient Greece. He is especially important for his discovery of the relation between the surface and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing cylinder. He is known for his formulation of a hydrostatic principle (known as Archimedes’ principle) and a device for raising water, still used, known as the Archimedes screw. Archimedes probably spent some time...

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