One of the most talked about things this week was a strange video of a man who appeared to have a real life jet-powered hoverboard. The video was published by Zapata Racing, which has made water-powered versions of these flying machines for a few years now . The difference is that those are always tethered to some kind of personal watercraft. This new "Flyboard Air," as CEO Franky Zapata calls it, is something totally different. The video went viral on Monday, and it polarized the internet. People thought it was either the coolest thing ever invented , or that it was a massive hoax . Even optimistic parties, like myself, were skeptical . Maybe we all still feel a little burned by Tony Hawk and FunnyorDie, or maybe we were just being careful — after all, the video was suspiciously edited, there were very few details, and it just looked a little fake. Over the week, more videos of the flight(s) surfaced, and it appeared to be the real deal. This morning, thou...
Archimedes of Syracuse (/ˌɑːkɪˈmiːdiːz/;[2]Greek: Ἀρχιμήδης; c. 287 – c. 212 BC) was aGreek mathematician, physicist, engineer,inventor, and astronomer.[3] Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time,[4][5] Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts of infinitesimals and themethod of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface areaand volume of a sphere, and the area under aparabola.[6]
Other mathematical achievements include deriving an accurate approximation of pi, defining and investigating the spiral bearing his name, and creating a system usingexponentiation for expressing very large numbers. He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics, including an explanation of the principle of the lever. He is credited with designing innovativemachines, such as his screw pump,compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native Syracuse from invasion.
Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracusewhen he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed.Cicero describes visiting the tomb of Archimedes, which was surmounted by asphere and a cylinder, which Archimedes had requested to be placed on his tomb, representing his mathematical discoveries.
Unlike his inventions, the mathematical writings of Archimedes were little known in antiquity. Mathematicians from Alexandriaread and quoted him, but the first comprehensive compilation was not made until c. 530 AD by Isidore of Miletus inByzantine Constantinople, while commentaries on the works of Archimedes written by Eutocius in the sixth century AD opened them to wider readership for the first time. The relatively few copies of Archimedes' written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance,[7] while the discovery in 1906 of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results.[8]
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