Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Back to . . .
This section . . .
ArchimedesHomePage
Sources
Illustrations
,
.
In his work On the Sphere and Cylinder, Archimedes proved that the ratio of the volume of a sphere
to the volume of the cylinder that contains it is 2:3. In that same work he also proved that the ratio of
the surface area of a sphere to the surface area of the cylinder that contains it, together with its
circular ends, is also 2:3.
Because expressions for the volume and surface area of a cylinder were known before his time,
Archimedes results established the rst exact expressions for the volume and surface area of a
sphere.
English translation and Greek text edited by Bernadotte Perrin in Plutarchs Lives, Volume V, The Loeb Classical Library,
G. P. Putnams Sons, New York, 1917 (see pages 480-1).
John Tzetzes (circa twelfth century AD), Book of Histories (Chiliades), Book II, Lines 145-147
English translation by Earnest Cary in Dios Roman History, Volume II: Fragments of Books XII-XXXV, The Loeb Classical
Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1914.
Greek text from Ioannis TzeTzae: Historiarum Variarum Chiliades, edited by T. Kiessling, Leipzig, 1826 (see page 46).
Translation by Michael Grant in Cicero-On the Good Life, Penguin Books, New York, 1971, Pages 86-87.
Simmons, George F., Calculus Gems, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1992, (see page 38)
The Romans were so uninterested in mathematics that Ciceros act of respect in cleaning
up Archimedes grave was perhaps the most memorable contribution of any Roman to the
history of mathematics.
Cicero himself lends credence to Simmons assessment when he writes (Tusculan Disputations, Book
I, Section 5):
Wordsworth, William (1770-1850), The Excursion (Book Eighth: The Parsonage, lines 220-230)
Call Archimedes from his buried tomb