I feel a little closer to Archimedes than I do to other famous scientists and mathematicians. In 2007 I had the privilege of attending a high-pressure physics conference in Catania, Sicily (Italy). In addition to hiking on Mount Etna, I spent some time in Siracusa (Ortygia in The Odyssey), walking around the narrow streets and imagining both Archimedes and the Apostle Paul (Acts 28:12) also walking these streets and seeing many of these same buildings, perhaps walking on these same stones.
Archimedes was a mathematician and scientist who was born in Syracuse (Siracusa), Sicily, around 287 B.C. At that time, Syracuse had already been a Greek city-state for about 500 years. Archimedes is known to have invented several war machines which were used to defend Syracuse against invaders. He also invented the planetarium and probably several other devices, such as the water screw. Today he is known as the "father of integral calculus" and the "father of mathematical physics." He is "generally regarded as the greatest mathematician and scientist of antiquity and one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time." Apparently we don't know what Archimedes looked like, but I like the painting by Jusepe de Ribera from the 1600s, shown here. He reminds me of a very kind Sicilian man of whom I asked directions to the train station in Milazzo. He was working on his car when I interrupted him.
One of the most well-known stories about Archimedes has to do with King Hiero's crown. King Hiero II, king of Syracuse at the time, commissioned a gold wreath to be made by a goldsmith, probably to be placed on the statue of a god or goddess. However, the king suspected that the goldsmith had replaced some of the gold in the wreath with silver of an equal weight. The silver was worth less than the gold, and the wreath would have had the correct weight. However, since the density of silver is less than that of gold, the volume of the wreath would not have been the same as it would have been if the wreath were made of pure gold. The wreath could have been melted or otherwise destroyed to find out if the goldsmith had been dishonest, but the wreath was considered holy since it was dedicated to the gods. Therefore, Hiero asked Archimedes to find out if the wreath was solid gold or not, without damaging the wreath in any way.
The solution which occurred when he stepped into his bath and caused it to overflow was to put a weight of gold equal to the crown, and known to be pure, into a bowl which was filled with water to the brim. Then the gold would be removed and the king’s crown put in, in its place. An alloy of lighter silver would increase the bulk of the crown and cause the bowl to overflow.
The wreath, being less dense but with the same weight, has more volume and therefore displaces more water.
When he came upon this method of solving his problem, Archimedes was said to have left his house, still naked for his bath, and run through the streets of Syracuse shouting "Eureka!" which means "I found it!"
This is what I would hope for all of my students, that they would put forth the effort to really dig into their homework and wrestle out the ways the solve the problems. Then, when they do figure it out, they can shout "Eureka!" and take satisfaction in a job well done. When we put forth the effort and things finally work out for us, we can feel God's pleasure in learning and using our minds and our determination to solve the problems we confront. Even more importantly, though, I want students to develop a desire to know and a desire to learn more. Rather than just learning a set of empty skills, I want them to have a hunger that needs to be satisfied, to have a personal desire to accomplish something. When this happens, the skills come easily -- they are merely tools to accomplish a task.
Much of the information about Archimedes was taken from from the excellent website on Archimedes by Chris Rorres:
http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html