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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and

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Speaker 1: I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting

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Speaker 1: across from me as usual, ready to move the Earth

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Speaker 1: is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. One is a genius, the

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Speaker 1: others insane. To prove their mousey worth, they'll overthrow the earth.

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Speaker 1: That was a particularly nice one. Thank you. I thought

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Speaker 1: you were gonna say one is the loneliest number, and

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, what does that have to do

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Speaker 1: with our podcast? Now? We're going to talk about a genius.

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Speaker 1: Today we are going to concentrate on a genius, mathematical

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Speaker 1: genius and inventor, one of the one of the greats. Really, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we are. And in the past we have talked about

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Speaker 1: many fascinating people in tech, uh, most of whom lived

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Speaker 1: in the twenty one centuries. Today we're going back a

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Speaker 1: bit farther, Yeah, to the point of of two seven

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Speaker 1: b C would be the the year that this fellow

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Speaker 1: was born. And we are talking about Archimedes. Yes, the

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Speaker 1: developer of the T R S A D. I'm kidding,

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Speaker 1: he's definitely a precursor to that. Um. Yes, we're not

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Speaker 1: talking Texas instruments, we're talking Greek ones. So Archimedes was

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Speaker 1: a mathematician, he was an astronomer, he was an engineer

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Speaker 1: and inventor. Very clever fellow, I guess that would probably

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Speaker 1: an understatement. Oh, yes, one of the fathers of calculus.

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Speaker 1: Not not the calculus that we used today, but precursor again. Uh, well,

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Speaker 1: we've talked about it a lot in in the past

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Speaker 1: two We've talked about the principle of simultaneous discovery, where

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Speaker 1: people more than one person comes up with the same idea.

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Speaker 1: We've also talked about how people to have discoveries build

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Speaker 1: on other people's work. And Archimedes was definitely a founder

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Speaker 1: of many, many of our technologies. Yeah, you would call

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Speaker 1: him the father of integral calculus. Not not the same

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Speaker 1: thing as Newtonian calculus um, which is of course much

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Speaker 1: later on. So and and Chris has already made mention

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Speaker 1: of one of the famous quotes attributed to Archimedes, which is,

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Speaker 1: give me a place to stand, and I will move

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Speaker 1: the earth and it sounds like something that a megalomaniacal

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Speaker 1: supervillain would say. But in this case, Archimedes is talking

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Speaker 1: about the discoveries he made and what we would call

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Speaker 1: basic mechanical structures now, things like pulleys and levers. In

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Speaker 1: that case, we're talking specifically about leavers. But our Coimedes

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Speaker 1: really was interested in the relationship of pulleys leavers and

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Speaker 1: how they could be used to do work, and um,

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Speaker 1: he spent quite a bit of time perfecting that, so

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Speaker 1: much so that there are certain inventions that are are

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Speaker 1: associated with him that are related in some form to

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Speaker 1: simple machines, although not all of those inventions are necessarily

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Speaker 1: straight from uh, from archimedes brain. But we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about some of the things that he

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Speaker 1: did do, and then some of the things that are

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Speaker 1: attributed to him that perhaps he did not do or

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Speaker 1: perhaps just didn't work. There's one in particular that's pretty

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Speaker 1: famous due to a MythBusters episode that we'll get to.

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Speaker 1: It's one of my favorites, actually, Now, Archimedes. Archimedes his

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Speaker 1: dad was an astronomer, so he was growing up, he

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Speaker 1: was exposed to the sciences. Um, he was probably taught

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Speaker 1: by followers of Euclid, and uh he was. You know,

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Speaker 1: what we know of him is mostly from stuff that

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Speaker 1: was written well after his death, and because of that

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Speaker 1: we can't be completely certain about the details of his life.

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Speaker 1: In fact, there's still some confusion about exactly when he died.

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Speaker 1: It was sometime around two hundred twelve or two hundred

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Speaker 1: eleven b C. He was born in two eight seven

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Speaker 1: b C. Remember we count backwards right, probably confuse the

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Speaker 1: heck out of them at the time. What are we

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Speaker 1: coming down to? So, yeah, so and so he died

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Speaker 1: around two twelve to eleven b C. And you might ask, well,

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Speaker 1: how did Archimedes die? How did Archimedes die violently? Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: it was during a sacking of Syracuse, which is that

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Speaker 1: was archimedes home. He lived in Syracuse, in Sicily and

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Speaker 1: at the time it was an independent Greek city state.

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Speaker 1: Before it it was, you know, physically uprooted and moved

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Speaker 1: to New York. Yes, no, yes, not how exactly what happened? No, no, no,

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Speaker 1: the original original Syracuse. So so in the Romans were

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Speaker 1: in a war with It was a Roman Carthin Carthaginian war,

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Speaker 1: says Carthage, and Rome are in a war with each

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Speaker 1: other in Syracuse got pulled into the middle of that,

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Speaker 1: despite attempts to kind of sort of not do that,

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Speaker 1: but various rulers of Syracuse ended up siding with either

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Speaker 1: Home or Carthage during the the the whole conflict, and

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Speaker 1: at one point in the war, Rome besieged Syracuse and

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Speaker 1: during the attack a Roman soldier came upon Archimedes, and

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Speaker 1: although there were specific orders to spare the life of Archimedes,

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Speaker 1: the Roman soldier killed him, apparently not knowing the identity

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Speaker 1: of the man he put to the sword. So Archimedes

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Speaker 1: was He was valued by both sides. He was recognized

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Speaker 1: as a genius, and neither side wanted this genius to

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Speaker 1: be destroyed. But as an unfortunate side effective war, sometimes

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Speaker 1: accidents happened. Now why was why did people consider him

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Speaker 1: a genius? Well, one was that he was making incredible

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Speaker 1: contributions to mathematics. He had found really interesting relationships between

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Speaker 1: things like the volume of the sphere and the surface

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Speaker 1: area of cylinders, and found out interesting ways to to

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Speaker 1: kind of explain those relationships, including a very close approximation

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Speaker 1: of pie um. Bye, we've lost him, haven't had breakfast? Yet. Um.

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Speaker 1: So he was definitely valued for his intelligence, but beyond that,

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Speaker 1: he also was this great inventor. In fact, during the war,

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Speaker 1: during the siege on Syracuse, he came up with an

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Speaker 1: invention known as the iron hand that played a big

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Speaker 1: part in the defense of the city. Did you come

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Speaker 1: across the iron hand? Actually I did not come across

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Speaker 1: the iron hand. This is different from the iron fist. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I guess the one is used for defense. The other

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Speaker 1: one you rule with that. It was also sometimes called

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Speaker 1: Archimedes claw. Um, it's a it's a brilliant, brilliant defense

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Speaker 1: mechanism for that time. It would not work today. But

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Speaker 1: here's what here's what it was. So Syracuse was um,

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Speaker 1: right up against the ocean. Like essentially there was you know,

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Speaker 1: a slight cliff and then you had a city wall

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Speaker 1: that that was I think twenty seven kilometers long back

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Speaker 1: when it stood. It doesn't stand anymore, um, but it

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Speaker 1: you know, then you it was essentially right up against

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Speaker 1: the ocean. So one of the possible avenues of attack

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Speaker 1: was an attack by sea, which is what one of

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Speaker 1: the venues that Rome was interested in. So, uh, the

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Speaker 1: leader of Syracuse came to our communes and said, I

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Speaker 1: need a way to protect us while from these attacks

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Speaker 1: from the from the ocean. So what our communes came

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Speaker 1: up with was an enormous lever that you would mount

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Speaker 1: on the sides of the city walls. Are actually on

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Speaker 1: the top of the city walls. So you have this

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Speaker 1: huge lever that that extends out over the ocean. Okay,

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Speaker 1: from the end of the lever, you have a rope

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Speaker 1: that drops down, and on the end of the rope

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Speaker 1: is a grappling hook. Now on the other end, the

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Speaker 1: short end of the lever, you put huge lead weights

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Speaker 1: and you first put them near the pivot point so

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Speaker 1: that the weight of the long part of the lever

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Speaker 1: keeps it level. All right, What you try to do

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Speaker 1: is you try and catch the bow of a ship,

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Speaker 1: a Roman ship with that grappling hook. Once you do,

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Speaker 1: you slide those weights back from the the fulcrum there

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Speaker 1: to the very end of the short arm of the lever.

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Speaker 1: Now that weight is enough to push that end of

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Speaker 1: the lever down, meaning the long arm of the lever

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Speaker 1: goes up. That's the arm that, by the way, is

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Speaker 1: attached to the rope and the grappling hook. So you

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Speaker 1: literally pull the end of the Roman ship out of

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Speaker 1: the water. You then use the lever to shake the

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Speaker 1: Roman ship and eventually the grappling hook breaks off of it,

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Speaker 1: making the Roman ship fall again, either smashing against the

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Speaker 1: water or the rocks on the base of the cliffs.

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Speaker 1: That's brilliant, but extremely complicated. It seems like trying to

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Speaker 1: to build the lever. Yeah, however, was incredibly effective. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so effective that Rome abandoned their sea based attacks. They

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Speaker 1: instead of instead of attacking Syracuse by see, what they

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Speaker 1: did was they set up a blockade further out in

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Speaker 1: the ocean where they're not going to get hit by

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Speaker 1: a grappling hook from the shore, and then they ended

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Speaker 1: up attacking by land and eventually sacked Syracuse. So while

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Speaker 1: the victory was a a a good one, I mean

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Speaker 1: it was, it was definitely a lauded victory, but it

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Speaker 1: was short lived because all they did was they changed

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Speaker 1: tactics and unfortunately the the iron hand was not as

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Speaker 1: good at defending against land based attacks good at all. Now,

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Speaker 1: there were other theoretical weapons that some people say actually

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Speaker 1: were built and used against the Romans during this very

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Speaker 1: same siege, and uh, one of the one I was

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Speaker 1: talking about with MythBusters was the the Archimedes death ray.

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Speaker 1: Oh right, you know what I'm talking about here, right right,

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Speaker 1: How he theoretically was able to uh set fire to

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Speaker 1: the sales, Yeah, to the same or actual ships from

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Speaker 1: a distance. The idea being that he designed a device

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Speaker 1: that would reflect and concentrate light from the sun and

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Speaker 1: direct it at ships, and it would be so intense

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Speaker 1: that it would be hot enough to to set fire

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Speaker 1: to at least the sales of the ship, if not

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Speaker 1: the actual ships themselves. Uh and and and at least

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Speaker 1: some of the reports it was uh said that he

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Speaker 1: used shields and he just polished the surface of the

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Speaker 1: metal shields and arrayed them in a in a shape

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Speaker 1: that would direct the light kind of very concentrated way.

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Speaker 1: So you have all these different shields that are tilted

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Speaker 1: just so so that the light that they reflect all

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Speaker 1: hits the same spot, sort of like the devices that

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Speaker 1: you used to cook a hot dog or something like

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Speaker 1: that that you used to use a camp. You know,

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Speaker 1: you have your your mirror and you stick your food there,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the sunlight reflects off the inside of

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Speaker 1: the mirror, and except much much larger and stuff I

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Speaker 1: use to fire, Yeah, anyway now that that actually isn't

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Speaker 1: so far fetched in a way. I mean, he really

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Speaker 1: was interested in catoptrics, which I didn't know was a word,

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Speaker 1: so I'm trying to use it and build it into

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Speaker 1: my vocabulary that I don't know what it is, so

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Speaker 1: please tell me, yes, Well, I actually got that word

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Speaker 1: from H. Britannica's profile on archimedes Um. It is the

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Speaker 1: the part of optics that works with the reflection of

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Speaker 1: light from mirrors from different types. They could be flat

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Speaker 1: or curved mirrors, but catoptrics is is that, uh study,

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Speaker 1: and he was particularly interested in it, so it wasn't

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Speaker 1: like it was out of character for him to be

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Speaker 1: interested in something like that. But apparently it doesn't so

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Speaker 1: much work well. On the MythBusters episode that they made um,

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Speaker 1: the MythBusters used they they actually tried to build one

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Speaker 1: themselves and it didn't really work so well. And then

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Speaker 1: they set out a challenge to various groups to try

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Speaker 1: and build old Um a working ur commedees death ray,

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Speaker 1: and they found some success, something where it was warm

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Speaker 1: enough where it could in theory set fire to maybe

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Speaker 1: the sales, but it would it took time, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you had to worry about it being the right time

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Speaker 1: of day for you to be able to do this,

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Speaker 1: And it would really depend on the ship being very

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Speaker 1: uh well complicit in the burning process, in the sense

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Speaker 1: of if the ship's moving around a lot, then you

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Speaker 1: have to be able to move the ray so that

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Speaker 1: it stays on the same general area in order to

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Speaker 1: keep increasing that temperature until it reaches the burning point.

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Speaker 1: And if the ship's moving, then you may not be

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Speaker 1: able to train the ray on that on that uh

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Speaker 1: moving target fast enough to be able to um to

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Speaker 1: actually get the temperature hot enough to for stuff to burn.

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Speaker 1: So it's even if it were an actual weapon, it

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Speaker 1: was not necessarily an effective one, not like the not

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Speaker 1: like the the the lever that he had designed, which

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Speaker 1: was to monsterly effective, effective enough to make the Romans

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Speaker 1: change their tactics. Now, there are also other interesting inventions

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Speaker 1: that we attribute to our commedies, one of which is

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Speaker 1: uh that that he probably did make were planetariums. Oh yes,

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Speaker 1: they were also called spheres at the time. The Archimedes spears,

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Speaker 1: and it was if you don't know what a planetarium is,

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Speaker 1: a planetarium is essentially a geocentric model of what the

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Speaker 1: h the stars and position of planets in the Sun

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Speaker 1: and the moon, what what it looks like from the

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Speaker 1: perspective of Earth. You know, it's a it's an earth

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Speaker 1: based view of the the galaxies around us, the universe essentially.

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Speaker 1: And so Archimedes had apparently built one of these possibly

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Speaker 1: that used interesting little gears to mimic the motion of

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Speaker 1: the planets and stars and constellations to keep everything aligned

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Speaker 1: properly and making the move the way they actually do

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Speaker 1: through the sky. And uh, he built a couple of

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Speaker 1: these apparently, although both of them have been lost. There

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Speaker 1: were other devices that have been recovered since then from

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Speaker 1: shipwrecks and things like that that may either be an

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Speaker 1: actual example of the spheres of Archimedes himself built or

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Speaker 1: maybe built on the same principles that Archimedes used when

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Speaker 1: building his But that's that's one of those things where

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Speaker 1: we have we've heard the record of him building these things,

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Speaker 1: and he certainly had the intelligence necessary to be able

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Speaker 1: to design such a thing, we just don't have the

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Speaker 1: physical proof of it. Um. Yeah, there was a treatise

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Speaker 1: that he apparently wrote called the sand Reckoner that had

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Speaker 1: to do with um astronomy and his astronomical thought. He

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Speaker 1: actually had had been able to sort of using his

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Speaker 1: tools of his time, he was able to get an

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Speaker 1: eye a reasonable idea of the diameter of the sun, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, through his uh using instruments to observe this.

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Speaker 1: And this is of course long before people that we

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Speaker 1: sort of associate with um astronomy, you know, modern astronomy,

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Speaker 1: people like Galileo UM. You know. There he was really

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Speaker 1: sort of in a groundbreaking category in this regard. But

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Speaker 1: all there were others who who worked with these principles

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Speaker 1: to um. You know, his work went into uh, several

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Speaker 1: others as well, but UM, I think it's sort of

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Speaker 1: disappeared for a while. UM. And they were the kinds

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Speaker 1: of things too that stood out. People like Plutarch, the

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Speaker 1: uh um you know, who wrote quite a bit about

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Speaker 1: the famous people of his time, categorized archimedes work. UM

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Speaker 1: and he's you know, these things were well enough documented

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Speaker 1: that he was able to to pull this out. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about another real quick legendary Archimedes

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Speaker 1: moment um. This would be another great quote. Yes it does.

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Speaker 1: It has to do with the bathtub. So this is

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Speaker 1: again a possibly apocryphal story. So in other words, this

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Speaker 1: this may not be true. In fact, I think a

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Speaker 1: lot of historians put this in the realm of legend

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Speaker 1: for for many reasons, one of which is that the

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Speaker 1: solution Archimedes came up with was actually not as not

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Speaker 1: as difficult to to get to as you would imagine. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, it seems like it's too easy an

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Speaker 1: answer for Archimedes is almost the argument here. But the

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Speaker 1: the situation was that you had the King of Syracuse

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Speaker 1: who had commissioned a a golden crown, and this golden

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Speaker 1: crown was made, but the king was suspicious of the

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Speaker 1: golden crown. He thought that perhaps the person who made

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Speaker 1: it actually used silver to make the crown and then

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Speaker 1: coated it with gold in order to UH to cheat

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Speaker 1: the king out of money, essentially because silver was less

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Speaker 1: precious than gold, and therefore by using gold silver in

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Speaker 1: the crown, he could make it for for less money

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Speaker 1: than it would cost him uh to to gather all

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Speaker 1: the materials, and thus have a higher profit. So how

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Speaker 1: do you figure out if it weighs the right amount

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Speaker 1: for a crown of that general size? Um, how do

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Speaker 1: you figure out whether or not silver was used? Well,

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Speaker 1: silver doesn't weigh as much as gold does. So in

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Speaker 1: other in other words, in order to make a silver

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Speaker 1: crown that would weigh the same amount as a gold crown,

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Speaker 1: you would have to add more silver. Right, So, if

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Speaker 1: you had a cube of silver and a cube of

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Speaker 1: gold that were the exact same size, the gold would

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Speaker 1: weigh more. So in order to make the cube's weigh

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Speaker 1: the same, you would have to have a bigger cube

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Speaker 1: of silver. Right, So that was that was what Archimedes

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Speaker 1: came up with. He came up with this adea of well,

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Speaker 1: if I use the amount of gold that it takes

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Speaker 1: to create the weight of this crown, let's say this

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Speaker 1: crown weighs let's just say ten pounds. Okay, okay, So

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Speaker 1: for the argument's sake, this crown weighed ten pounds. So

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Speaker 1: what our community said, Well, what if I get ten

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Speaker 1: pounds of gold, and then I use some way to

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Speaker 1: determine the mass of that gold, and then I use

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Speaker 1: that same measurement for the crown. If the measurements the same,

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Speaker 1: then we can come to the conclusion that the gold

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Speaker 1: that is gold in the crown, if the if it's different,

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Speaker 1: then we can say that maybe there's a different material

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Speaker 1: in here. So what he did was he took a bath. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so this all has to do with the displacement of

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Speaker 1: water by putting the the and again we're just using

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Speaker 1: this this measurement out of for for simplicity's sake. Putting

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Speaker 1: ten pounds of gold in the bath, he sees how

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Speaker 1: much water is displaced, how far that water is displaced

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Speaker 1: in the bath, and then putting the crown in there,

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Speaker 1: he can see how much water is displaced from there,

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Speaker 1: and the the amount is different than he knows that

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Speaker 1: the two materials are not the same. And supposedly he

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Speaker 1: became so excited by this discovery that he ran out

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Speaker 1: of his home. Starkers, I'm that's not a joke. That's

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Speaker 1: part of the legend. Know that that part is not

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Speaker 1: what's cracking up Starkers. He was naked as a blue

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Speaker 1: jay running down the road, turning into my kinfolk here.

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Speaker 1: Um so anyway, yeah, completely nude, running down the street

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Speaker 1: and screams out Eureka, which means I have found it

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Speaker 1: also is a quirky, uh dramatic comedy on the sci

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Speaker 1: Fi network. Yes, that is anyway, So Eureka, that's that's

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Speaker 1: where we get that when when you have someone who

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Speaker 1: makes a discovering screams out eureka, they are essentially paying

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Speaker 1: homage to Archimedes, which, again, since this is a potentially

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Speaker 1: apocryphal story, we might just be paying homage to a legend. Well,

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Speaker 1: apparently the bathtub part is what's probably apocryphal, but the

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Speaker 1: crown part apparently is true. Um, they do. They do

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Speaker 1: seem to feel, or at least Britannic Adust seems to

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Speaker 1: feel that that that he was asked to determine whether

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Speaker 1: or not the crown was actually gold apparently really did happen. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and then you know, you would want somebody like

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Speaker 1: Archimedes to do this because he was thinking scientifically in

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Speaker 1: this case. And the reason you might say, well, why

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Speaker 1: don't they just scratched the crown and see if they're

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Speaker 1: silver and they bite it like your coin, right, Well,

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Speaker 1: the problem here was that the crown was considered to

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Speaker 1: be almost a holy relic. It was because you're the

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Speaker 1: kings of the Greeks were they would trace their lineage

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Speaker 1: back to God's and so you couldn't destroy the crown

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Speaker 1: in any way because that was an front to the gods.

348
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Speaker 1: So he had to find a non destructive way to

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Speaker 1: test this without you know, without actually causing any sort

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Speaker 1: of damage to the crown, which makes it way more difficult. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then we have another object that is attributed to Archimedes,

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Speaker 1: although it's very possible that it actually predates his lifetime

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Speaker 1: and it's just that he observed it and then was

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Speaker 1: able to apply it elsewhere, which is the Archimedes screw. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you know, well, how could it not be Archimedes invention?

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Speaker 1: It has his name right there in the name. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: McDonald's isn't named for somebody named McDonald, so you know

358
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Speaker 1: there's a name. A name is is a tricky thing sometimes,

359
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 1: but yes, he did. He did observe the principle that uh,

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00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:53,720
Speaker 1: you know, the hydrostatic principle using using the screw to

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Speaker 1: raise water, which sounds counterintuitive at first until you realize

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Speaker 1: how this is implemented. It's actually a screw that is,

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00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: in general, the screw is encased in a tube and

364
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,800
Speaker 1: then you lay it in a at an angle whereof

365
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:09,600
Speaker 1: you know, one end is raised at the top and

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Speaker 1: the other end goes into the water. So you've got

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Speaker 1: one end that that descends into the water, and you

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00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,160
Speaker 1: have one end that's above the water level. You start

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Speaker 1: turning that screw and what it does is it scoops

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Speaker 1: the water and the water travels up the screw just

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Speaker 1: because of the principle of the screw as you turn

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Speaker 1: it within this tube. Now there's you know, you might

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Speaker 1: have some leakage issues where some of the water leaks

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Speaker 1: back down to the next level down. But as as

375
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,919
Speaker 1: soon as you start turning that screw in a nice clip,

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00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 1: eventually the water starts coming to the surface, and the

377
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 1: the speed that you turn the screw will counteract the

378
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: leaking problem. And since it's just leaking to the next

379
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 1: level down, it essentially becomes a non issue once you

380
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,560
Speaker 1: get to a certain speed and you can actually lift

381
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,440
Speaker 1: water out of out of a body of water that way,

382
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 1: and this was often used in our commedes time two

383
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,640
Speaker 1: pull water from say a lake and put it into

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00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,960
Speaker 1: an irrigation system. The Greeks and Romans were both very

385
00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:10,399
Speaker 1: big on irrigation. Yes indeed, um, yeah, Actually that reminds

386
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:14,879
Speaker 1: me of there's an infant toy that has three or

387
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: four little plastic balls and there's a screw inside and

388
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,440
Speaker 1: if you push down and it's encased as you said,

389
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: in it and not in a tube. It's actually sort

390
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: of a it's not conical, but it does get narrower

391
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: at the top than it is at the bottom. And

392
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 1: when you press down on the plunger in the center,

393
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: it makes the screw turn. And the faster you push it,

394
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:38,639
Speaker 1: the higher the balls climb up the screw until you stop,

395
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,440
Speaker 1: and then they know spin back down. I mean there's

396
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:45,200
Speaker 1: you know, not hydro static, there's no water, and but yeah,

397
00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: it's the same kind of thing, and you can sort

398
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: of if you've seen that, that's you can sort of

399
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 1: imagine that because it's you don't often see an archimedes

400
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 1: screw in practice, although you you you can see them

401
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 1: in practice if you were to go to certain hydro

402
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,880
Speaker 1: electric plants, they would be used in practice in reverse

403
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 1: because then what you do is you turn the If

404
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,639
Speaker 1: you happen to pour water on the top of the screw,

405
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 1: it will make the screw turn. So you know, turning

406
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: the screw will bring water to the top. But if

407
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,199
Speaker 1: you pour water on the top of the screw, it

408
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:18,880
Speaker 1: makes the screw turn, so it's the reverse action. Well,

409
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 1: that means that if you are able to position the

410
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 1: screw so that a flow of water is constant on

411
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: the top of it, then the screw will keep turning.

412
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: You can make that screw to work. You can have

413
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 1: that screw uh use you can use it to drive

414
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: a generator, an electric generator, and thus you can create

415
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: electricity from water. That's just one way. I mean, there

416
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:39,679
Speaker 1: are turbines as well. I mean, it's not the only

417
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: method of of using water to drive an electric generator,

418
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,400
Speaker 1: but it is one way. Yeah. I was actually thinking

419
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 1: of the Tesla turbine when you mentioned that, um, which

420
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:52,919
Speaker 1: is also a fascinating thing. We have an article on

421
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: the website about that as a matter of fact. Not

422
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 1: it's not using the same exact principle, but it's also

423
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: a way of using water to to uh to turn

424
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: a turbine. That's not, you know, something what I would

425
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: think of a typical But anyway, I digress, and we

426
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 1: again we should point out, I mean, we've mentioned it

427
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 1: a couple of times, but it bears repeating that they

428
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:18,440
Speaker 1: the actual Archimedes screw. There are at least some indications

429
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,480
Speaker 1: that this was being used in Egypt, uh well before

430
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: Archimedes ever had his name attached to it. Yeah, completely

431
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,399
Speaker 1: by chance. Um A few months ago, I was reading

432
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,880
Speaker 1: the uh the Biography of Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. It's

433
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: very popular there for a while, UM, and I hadn't

434
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: really read a lot about ancient Egypt. But he Archimedes

435
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:44,360
Speaker 1: was actually in contact with, uh, some of the scientists

436
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: in Alexandria, which at that time, Alexandria and Egypt was

437
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,840
Speaker 1: probably the world center of learning, or at least one

438
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 1: of the top uh centers of scholarship, you know. And um,

439
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: he apparently was was in contact with them and had

440
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: spent some time in Egypt before he went to Syracuse. Uh.

441
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,360
Speaker 1: So it is not at all unlikely, um that he

442
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 1: wouldn't have you know that that he would have had

443
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 1: contact with those uh, those scientists over there and gotten

444
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 1: some some cool ideas, you know. And he also was

445
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,199
Speaker 1: attributed with the creation of a game. Really yeah, did

446
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:27,400
Speaker 1: you hear about stonemacheon or stomachion. I have heard of it,

447
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: but I didn't realize this was this was related to

448
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,080
Speaker 1: our comedies. It's attributed to him. It's a it's a

449
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,320
Speaker 1: game that you play with these different shapes. It's almost

450
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:38,439
Speaker 1: like having a puzzle in a way, like these shapes.

451
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: If you if you put them all together in one way,

452
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,119
Speaker 1: it will create essentially a square. But the idea is

453
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: to use those shapes to create other recognizable shapes. And

454
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: it's really an exercise and creativity like seeing seeing the

455
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: potential of geometry to build um shapes that are more organic,

456
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 1: so things like you use them to build a tree

457
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: or the example I saw was an elephant. Um, which

458
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:05,680
Speaker 1: is kind of it's just kind of interesting. Is the

459
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 1: idea that you have to use all the shapes in

460
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: the group to create a recognizable object, an interesting object.

461
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:19,960
Speaker 1: And uh so that's also attributed to Archimedes. But again

462
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,680
Speaker 1: this is another one of those attributions that we can't

463
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 1: be completely certain is accurate. It's just one of those

464
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: another another interesting thing of something that Archimedes may have

465
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 1: had a hand in. Um. So shapes actually yeah, um

466
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 1: looking for something. Darn it all right, hang on, well,

467
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 1: well you look and then we will pick up alright,

468
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,959
Speaker 1: speaking of shapes. Um, you know, he was he was

469
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: involved with many He published a lot of his work,

470
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 1: and there there is an indication that he may have

471
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: had other work that he either didn't publish or that

472
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:04,919
Speaker 1: was later lost. Um. Again, there's been a lot of

473
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 1: time that has passed now since he is he has

474
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 1: left us. But um, one of the things we do

475
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: know that he was fascinated with shapes. Um. He was

476
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: able to, uh to figure out the surface area of

477
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: a spear sphere of radius r. Remember this back from

478
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: your mathematics classes. I have a vague memory of it. Yeah,

479
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: yeph s equals for pie r squared. Yeah, and the

480
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 1: volume is two thirds of the cylinder in which it

481
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 1: is inscribed. H v equals four thirds pie r cubed.

482
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: I have not had to know those those formula and

483
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,719
Speaker 1: so long, but they came back to me as soon

484
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: as I saw that. And apparently, uh, he was so

485
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 1: excited about this that this is actually, uh what his

486
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 1: tomb was arked with. Marcus Tullius Cicero found his tomb,

487
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: which had been overgrown with uh greenery, let's say, and um,

488
00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: probably about a hundred and fifty years or so after

489
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: he died, and found that his uh, his tomb had

490
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: been inscribed with a a sphere or had been marked

491
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: with a sphere inscribed in a cylinder. And that's uh,

492
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 1: I just think that's fascinating. I mean, going back to

493
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: what I learned about geometry and um uh calculus. I

494
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 1: think of people who came much later than that. But

495
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 1: you know, in general, but Archimedes really had a huge

496
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: influence on many many other people. Of course, his writings

497
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: were known to uh, to the Arabic world. A lot

498
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 1: of a lot of scientists and mathematicians from that era

499
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: in in later centuries were able to take his work

500
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: and build upon it. Um, and it's just uh, it's

501
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 1: just cool stuff. He also did lot with with mathematics

502
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: as it was, you know, working on place value systems

503
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 1: UM and lots and lots of different things. He wasn't

504
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: he wasn't. Uh he was, I would say, polly mathic. Yes,

505
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,600
Speaker 1: you know, somebody who is is um well, has has

506
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: knowledge in multiple areas, very knowledgeable about a variety of

507
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 1: mathematical and science topics. And we'll probably talk about other

508
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 1: individuals who fall into that category as well. Um for example,

509
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 1: I eventually we're gonna have to do a full profile

510
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: on Leonardo da Vinci. Yeah, because but that's another famous

511
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: polymath from from history that that you know, really was

512
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: instrumental in the whole idea of of invention, you know,

513
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: really embracing that part of genius and uh, I would

514
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: say Archimedes was a great you know, uh forefather of

515
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 1: that of invention as well. Now granted, he's also a

516
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: very good example of the the raise uh necessity is

517
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: the mother of invention. When you've got romans attacking you,

518
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 1: you find it really necessary to find a way to

519
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,840
Speaker 1: make them stop. And then he wrote that song you know,

520
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: fifty Ways to Love your lever. Alright, So that wraps

521
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: up this discussion on Archimedes. If all of you folks

522
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: out there have in a particular people you would like

523
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: us to come straight on, either in the deep past

524
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: or even modern day, whichever, let us know. You can

525
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: send us a message on Facebook or Twitter. Are handle

526
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: there is tech Stuff h s W or you can

527
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: email us. That address is tech stuff at how stuff

528
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: works dot com. Chris and I will talk to you

529
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:44,959
Speaker 1: again really soon. Be sure to check out our new

530
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 1: video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work

531
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 1: staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities

532
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: as tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.

533
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:03,160
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