By: blahblahblah
mattfn: The claw is cool, but falls into the same category as the Death Ray....too impractical because of it's limitations to have been of actual use. Except that the Roman tactic was to use large...
View ArticleBy: UbuRoivas
* unleashes google-claw: Secrets of the AncientsThe Claw The mathematician Archimedes invented a terrifying machine known as The Claw, which was used successfully against the Romans when they attempted...
View ArticleBy: UbuRoivas
Great stuff, blahblahblah. There is also a British doco (series) in which a bunch of practically-minded archaeologists tried to recreate ancient technologies, including an episode in which they did...
View ArticleBy: absalom
Two quotes from about Archimedes, from his contemporaries: "From this day forth Archimedes is to be believed in everything that he may say". - King Hiero of Syracuse "Spare the mathematician!" - Roman...
View ArticleBy: amyms
This is great... I ran across the Archimedes Palimpset site awhile back and thought it was amazing... Now your post has given me a wealth of additional information to soak up, thanks!
View ArticleBy: mattfn
It was a repeat. The link to the discussion of that episode, including some comments from one of the hosts, is the very first link in this thread. It first aired September 29th, 2004 in the States,...
View ArticleBy: Vindaloo
Mythbusters did a very good episode on the Archimedes Death Ray where they invited viewers to create one and test it against theirs. Saw it last sunday, not sure if it was a repeat or not.
View ArticleBy: Pastabagel
Let's not forget archimedes's screw or the-thing-that-pumps-water-without-science-having-invented-pumps-yet. Archimedes is the Lockheed Skunk Works of the ancient world. We're still trying to figure...
View ArticleBy: storybored
I'm a Big fan of ol' Archimedes, yet reading this great FPP, i could not help but think: "not the Craw! the CRAWWWWW!" we now return to regular programming....
View ArticleBy: Floydd
the Spanish language would not be developed for another 1,000 years!!! Hablahblahblaha!
View ArticleBy: DU
Archimedes is the shiznit (imagine what he'd have done with a real number system, not mention other tools and a modern support structure), but I'm pretty underwhelmed by the tangrams reference. Cutting...
View ArticleBy: blahblahblah
Gurple. Er, combinatorics, I'm afraid. I am afraid my apparent misspelling was correct. Archimedies was far too advanced for combinatorics, a mere branch of mathematics. No, instead he was indeed...
View ArticleBy: flaterik
I am very good at math, compared to the average person. I was taking multi-variable calculus when I was 17, and kept going up through differential equations and discrete in college. But thinking about...
View ArticleBy: tylermoody
Don't forget infinitesimal calculus. Archimedes was all over Newton*'s game. and Leibniz. and Bhaskara Achārya. Did I mention that the king's crown ain't got nothin on Archimedes?
View ArticleClaws and Combinatorics in the Ancient World
We've talked about the Archimedes death ray, but it is not the only mysterious ancient war machine the Greek scientist constructed. A contemporary Greek historian describes a wide number of clever...
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