Things That Archimedes Made

Following in the footsteps of other great eccentric Greek mathematicians, Archimedes seems to have gone about his life by trying to learn something new every day. To make an exhaustive list of everything he discovered, invented, or improved would take far more space than what should be contained in these virtual pages, so today we'll take a look at just a few of his mind-boggling creations.

The pulley itself is so ancient that its creator's name has been lost in the mist of time. Archimedes experimented heavily with pulleys and created the world's first block and tackle system (basically a mechanism in which two or more pulleys are utilized). He discovered that each pulley he added made the load seem lighter, since the force was being transferred equally among all the pulleys in the array. This allowed merchants to construct great cranes capable of lifting heavier cargo, which meant more money on arrival.

But his genius did not end at maritime physics. While trying to find an easier way to irrigate highland farms, he invented Archimedes' screw, a device capable of carrying water upward. Now, ground water could be raised to the surface and reused on the crops. It could even be carried up mountains, if the pipes and screws were long enough. This revolutionary invention was so useful that the Romans later built it into all their farmland and even used it to carry drinking water into high fortified camps. Here's a great image of how this works:

During the First Punic War, he invented a primitive odometer. It was an array of gears and levers which would drop a ball into a small box for each mile it traveled. To have done this during a time when people believed that disease was caused by the moon is not only surprising; it's mind-bogglingly astonishing. In addition to this, he created several astronomical implements, some of which were carried away as loot by the Roman commander who sacked Syracuse.

In between revolutionary and brilliant inventions, he did Calculus. But wait! Didn't Sir Isaac Newton invent Calculus? No more than Henry Ford invented the automobile. Newton greatly expanded the science, which laid dormant for more than a thousand years, but it was Archimedes himself who made the first foray into the measurement of the infinite. Unfortunately, there was no one around capable of understanding Archimedes' work, let alone carry it on. Though he served as a bright light for a time, the world went dark again at his passing, and the Greeks and Romans went back to their day-to-day business, being afraid of things they didn't understand. His work lives on, and he remains one of the most important mathematicians and inventors in all of history.