Science Assassination: WHO KILLED ARCHIMEDES? by: Mariana Lima

This week, we were all surprised by the unexpected death of Archimedes. All Greece mourns the early departure of one of the greatest mathematicians of our time and, all the Greeks are charging further investigations.

Let’s remember something about our genius. Archimedes was born in Syracuse, a Greek seaport in Sicily. Son of the astronomer Phidias, Archimedes studied at Euclid’s school in Alexandria, which was one of the biggest Egyptian cities.

Nowadays, Archimedes did important discoveries and we believe that it will be very useful for the hole world. His integral calculus and his studies of the areas and volumes of curved solid figures and the areas of plane figures are big discoveries of the modern science. According with the people who work with him, Archimedes is workaholic and get so absorbed in his work that sometimes he forgets to eat.

In spite of his many inventions, he considered his theoretical work as his main triumph. The word “Eureka” was invented by Archimedes during his inventions of measuring the volume of an object with an irregular shape. Today all the Greeks say “Eureka” when they have some good idea.

According to one of the investigators, Archimedes was researching a new mathematical diagram, when a Roman soldier ordered him to meet General Marcus (who was engaged in the siege of Syracuse). It was normal Archimedes be interrupted during his researches, but he almost never responded to the requests because of his concentration. And, as expected, Archimedes declined saying that he had to finish his diagram. A rumor says that the Roman soldier was furious and started to shout with Archimedes and then, killed him. General Marcus was arrested in this morning to give a testimonial for the investigations and now is waiting the police find his soldier.

Greeks n’ Geeks will continue to follow the research and come back at any time with greater information about this tragedy.