Did Archimedes spend time in Alexandria, Egypt?
Upvote:1
There is compelling circumstantial evidence that Archimedes studied in Alexandria as a young man, but I believe he was back in Syracuse in 265. He would have then been about 22. At that time, Hieron 11 became king of Syracuse and would have commissioned the famous golden crown and asked Archimedes to verify its gold content.
In 240, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth and a critical part of his geometry was the distance between Alexandria and Syene. He may have used bematists, contemporary Egyptian records and a hodometer to check the land distance, then estimate the direct distance.
Coincidentally in 240, Hieron's lavish grain/passenger ship designed by Archimedes, The Alexandrian, berthed in Alexandria. Archimedes may have been a passenger, bringing with him his land distance measurer, the hodometer. It may be that Eratosthenes used this device invented by his colleague, Archimedes.
Upvote:12
It is possible, although there is no direct evidence to confirm it. We have no surviving documents that state explicitly that Archimedes studied in Alexandria.
We know that Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene were contemporaries in Alexandria. On a couple of occasions, Archimedes referred to Conon of Samos as his friend. In addition, two of his works (The Method of Mechanical Theorems and the Cattle Problem) have introductions addressed to Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
Among many others, Thomas G. Chondros has argued that this implies the Archimedes studied in Alexandria [Archimedes life works and machines, Elsevier, 2010].
However, it is also quite possible that both Conon and Eratosthenes travelled to Syracuse and met Archimedes there.
More post
- 📝 How did St Sebastian become a gay male icon?
- 📝 Was the Battle of Tours really the turning point for the Umayyad expansion into Europe?
- 📝 Is there a historical source that might explain why so many countries use 35 as a minimum age for the president / the highest office person?
- 📝 What was the real name of the painter who made the Christ Pantocrator of Sant Climent de Taüll Church?
- 📝 Cabin space on the Nadezhda
- 📝 What races did Americans classify people into during the 1800s?
- 📝 Is this true that the requirement to sacrifice to the Roman gods was put in by the Caesar only after Christianity emerged?
- 📝 When were the heresy laws abolished in England?
- 📝 When did people understand where children come from?
- 📝 How large could king Arthur's kingdom have realistically been?
- 📝 Why did the Queen of Hawai'i surrender, when two thirds of the registered voters were in favour of signing the new constitution in 1893?
- 📝 When did official documentation stop referring to black people as Negros in the States?
- 📝 What cars were used with the Crocodile Class Ce 6/8 locomotive during its active years, especially at the beginning?
- 📝 Language in German cloisters during the High Middle Ages
- 📝 What does a black cloth on your upper left arm mean in the context of 1950s USA?
- 📝 What goods did Germany trade during World War II, and with whom?
- 📝 Why don't people without access to clean water drink beer anymore?
- 📝 What is the origin of "With an iron fist, we will drive humanity to happiness?"
- 📝 Why didn't Caesar move against Sextus Pompey immediately after Munda?
- 📝 Was the Minoan civilization warlike?
- 📝 Did the division between East and West Germany coincide with cultural boundaries?
- 📝 Should the Great Schism of 1054 be taken to be 1204 (or 1182) instead?
- 📝 When did banks start giving interest to depositors?
- 📝 Is there a term for the principle of preferring earlier statements over later statements made by historical eye witnesses?
- 📝 Was slave labor used in rebuilding the White House?
- 📝 What was the first ever televised lottery?
- 📝 Athenian Democracy - How were the citizens motivated to be so politically active?
- 📝 Is there a name for the critical method of assessing historical narratives via the consultation of primary sources?
- 📝 Did American forces specifically target officers during the revolutionary war?
- 📝 Does special perception of rhyme by humans indicate importance of poetry in prehistoric era?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Archimedes spend time in Alexandria, Egypt?
- 📝 Where did Cimon spend his time while in exile?
- 📝 At which point in time did the majority of German population become aware of the Holocaust?
- 📝 How did people wake up on time before alarm clocks?
- 📝 Why did the Japanese attack the Aleutians at the same time as Midway?
- 📝 How did the Druids learn the Greek language by the time of Caesar's campaign in Gaul?
- 📝 Italian History from 1870-1913: Why did Italy have such a hard time becoming a "Great Power" like Germany?
- 📝 Where did Roman senators mostly live in the time of Tiberius or Caligula?
- 📝 Did the German authorities respell Polish personal names to be more German during the time of the German Empire?
- 📝 What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?
- 📝 Did anyone at the time blame the Great Plague on rats or fleas?
- 📝 How did Egypt become a protectorate of the British empire?
- 📝 Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?
- 📝 How much time did people have to take shelter during the Blitz in 1940-41?
- 📝 Did the Ottoman Empire lose some control over Egypt during the Crimean War?
- 📝 Did Archimedes have any students?
- 📝 What time period did these notes come from?
- 📝 Around 1640s, at what time did people eat Christmas dinner?
- 📝 How well did William III speak English at time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688?
- 📝 Why did the Arab League re-admit Egypt in 1989?
- 📝 Did Viet Nam suffer a famine any time during the 1980s? And if not, how close was it to famine?
- 📝 Why did Egypt forbid entry of Israeli ships into the Suez canal in 1956?
- 📝 Did ancient Egypt gain any significant cultural influence from other states/regions?
- 📝 What resources did the Nahua value most at the time of Spanish conquest?
- 📝 Did either Chinese government (Beijing or Taipei) operate an administrative structure in the Kowloon Walled City at any time between 1898 and 1994?
- 📝 Why did Dorothy Dixers become prevalent in question time in Australia?
- 📝 At what point in time did Judaism become popular? [Pre Christianity]
- 📝 Why did the United States under the Articles of Confederation have a hard time getting funding?
- 📝 Did the famous abolitionist Elihu Embree own slaves at the time of his death?
- 📝 How much did Shah Jahan spend on Taj Mahal?