Greek Inventions Used even today....

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The anchor or agkura. We have already remarked that in the Homeric age, anchors were not known, and large stones (eunai, sleepers) used in their stead (Hom. Il. i.436, xiv.77, Od. ix.137, xv.498). According to Pliny (H.N. vii.57), the anchor was first invented by Eupalamus and afterwards improved by Anacharsis (Scythia). Afterwards, when anchors were used, they were generally made of iron, and their form, as may be seen from the annexed figure, taken from a coin, resembled that of a modern anchor (cf. Virg. Aen. i.169, vi.3). William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.
Burnt brick first used in Greece in 355 BC, but unreliable (Vitruvius 2.8.19)
There are three sorts of bricks; the first is that which the Greeks call Didoron (didwron), being the sort we use; that is, one foot long, and half a foot wide. The two other sorts are used in Grecian buildings; one is called "Pentadoron", the other "Tetradoron". By the word "doron" the Greeks mean a palm, because the word dwron signifies a gift which can be borne in the palm of the hand. That sort, therefore, which is five palms each way is called Pentadoron; that of four palms, Tetradoron. The former of these two sorts is used in public buildings, the latter in private. ...The proper seasons for brick-making are the spring and autumn, because they then dry more quably. Those made in the summer solstice are defective, because the heat of the sun soon imparts to their external surfaces an appearance of sufficient dryness, whilst the internal parts of them are in a very different state; hence, when thoroughly dry, they shrink and break those parts which were dry in the first instance; and thus broken, their strength is gone. Those are best that have been made at least two years; for in a period less than that they will not dry thoroughly. When plastering is laid and set hard on bricks which are not perfectly dry, the bricks, which will naturally shrink, and consequently occupy a less space than the plastering, will thus leave the latter to stand of itself. From its being extremely thin, and not capable of supporting itself, it soon breaks into pieces; and in its failure sometimes involves even that of the wall. It is not, therefore, without reason that the inhabitants of Utica allow no bricks to be used in their buildings which are not at least five years old, and also approved by a magistrate. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, de Architectura.
These and many other ancient Greek inventions were found at the Ancient Greek Inventions Site!

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ARCHIMEDES
Archimedes (287-212 BC) was a prolific ancient Greek mathematician. Archimedes invented the water screw, a device for raising water using an encased screw open at both ends. The screw is set an an angle, and as the screw turns, water fills the air pockets and is transported upwards. The Archimedes screw is still in use today. Among his many accomplishments was the first description of the lever (around 260 BC). Levers are one of the basic tools; they were probably used in prehistoric times. Many of our basic tools use levers, including scissors (two class-1 levers), pliers (two class-1 levers), hammer claws (one class-1 lever), nutcrackers (two class-2 levers), and tongs (two class-3 levers).

A Class 1 Lever.

A Class 2 Lever.

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STEAM ENGINE
The steam engine was invented by Heron, an ancient Greek geometer and engineer from Alexandria. Heron lived during the first century AD and is sometimes called Hero. Heron made the steam engine as a toy, and called his device "aeolipile," which means "wind ball" in Greek. The steam was supplied by a sealed pot filled with water and placed over a fire. Two tubes came up from the pot, letting the steam flow into a spherical ball of metal. The metallic sphere had two curved outlet tubes, which vented steam. As the steam went through the series of tubes, the metal sphere rotated. The aeolipile is the first known device to transform steam power into rotary motion. The Greeks never used this remarkable device for anything but a novelty. A steam engine designed for real work wasn't designed until 1690, when Dionysius Papin published plans for a for a high-pressure steam engine. Thomas Savery built the first steam engine in 1698. Watt later improved the steam engine.

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3. Another of Hero's inventions was the odometer, which by means of a suitable arrangement of gears and screws could record the distance covered by a moving chariot.
Even today, distance meters (odometers and taximeters) are still based on the same principle.

http://www.tmth.edu.gr/en/activities/dtexpo.html

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http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Inventions3.htm

see Robots below

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Diodorus Siculus (c. first century BC), Bibliotheke, Book I, 34.2
For since it [the delta of the Nile River] is alluvial soil and well watered, it produces many crops of every kind, inasmuch as the river by its annual rise regularly deposits on it fresh slime, and the inhabitants easily irrigate its whole area by means of a contrivance which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse and is called, after its shape, a screw.
(Translation by C. H. Oldfather in Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1933.)
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Diodorus Siculus (c. first century BC), Bibliotheke, Book V, 37.3-4
. . . and what is the most surprising thing of all, they [Roman slaves] draw out the water of the streams they encounter [in Spanish mines] by means of what is called by men the Egyptian screw, which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse at the time of his visit to Egypt; and by the use of such screws they carry the water in successive lifts as far as the entrance, drying up in this way the spot where they are digging and making it well suited to the furtherance of their operations. Since this machine is an exceptionally ingenious device, an enormous amount of water is thrown out, to one's astonishment, by means of a trifling amount of labour, and all the water from such rivers is brought up easily and from the depths and poured out on the surface. And a man may well marvel at the inventiveness of the craftsman [Archimedes], in connection not only with this invention but with many other greater ones as well, the fame of which has encompassed the entire inhabited world . . .




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Diodorus Siculus (c. first century BC), Bibliotheke, Book I, 34.2
For since it [the delta of the Nile River] is alluvial soil and well watered, it produces many crops of every kind, inasmuch as the river by its annual rise regularly deposits on it fresh slime, and the inhabitants easily irrigate its whole area by means of a contrivance which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse and is called, after its shape, a screw.
(Translation by C. H. Oldfather in Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1933.)
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Diodorus Siculus (c. first century BC), Bibliotheke, Book V, 37.3-4
. . . and what is the most surprising thing of all, they [Roman slaves] draw out the water of the streams they encounter [in Spanish mines] by means of what is called by men the Egyptian screw, which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse at the time of his visit to Egypt; and by the use of such screws they carry the water in successive lifts as far as the entrance, drying up in this way the spot where they are digging and making it well suited to the furtherance of their operations. Since this machine is an exceptionally ingenious device, an enormous amount of water is thrown out, to one's astonishment, by means of a trifling amount of labour, and all the water from such rivers is brought up easily and from the depths and poured out on the surface. And a man may well marvel at the inventiveness of the craftsman [Archimedes], in connection not only with this invention but with many other greater ones as well, the fame of which has encompassed the entire inhabited world . . .

(Translation by C. H. Oldfather in Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1939.
Diagram from R. E. Palmer, "Notes on Some Ancient Mine Equipments and Systems," Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, Volume 36, Pages 299-336, 1926.)
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Athenaeus of Naucratis (c. AD 200), Deipnosophistae, Book V
The bilge-water [of the ship Syracusia], even when it became very deep, could easily be pumped out by one man with the aid of the screw, an invention of Archimedes.
(Translation by Charles Burton Gulick in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1928)
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Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), The Fourteen "Quaestiones Mathematicae"
1. A theory is sought for the rising of water by the screw of Archimedes. Even if this machine is used most frequently, still its theory is desired.
(The first of fourteen mathematical problems that this great Swiss mathematician read before the St. Petersburg Academy of Science (St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1757 to be considered as potential problems for the Academy's prize.)
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Vitruvius (c. first century BC), De Architectura, Book X, Chapter VI, The Water Screw
1. There is also the method of the screw, which raises a great quantity of water, but does not carry it as high as does the wheel. The method of constructing it is as follows. A beam is selected, the thickness of which in digits is equivalent to its length in feet [16 digits = 1 foot]. This is made perfectly round. The ends are to be divided off on their circumference with the compass into eight parts, by quadrants and octants, and let the lines be so placed that, if the beam is laid in a horizontal position, the lines on the two ends may perfectly correspond with each other, and intervals of the size of one eighth part of the circumference of the beam may be laid off on the length of it. Then, placing the beam in a horizontal position, let perfectly straight lines be drawn from one end to the other. So the intervals will be equal in the directions both of the periphery and of the length. Where the lines are drawn along the length, the cutting circles will make intersections, and definite points at the intersections.



2. When these lines have been correctly drawn, a slender withe of willow, or a straight piece cut from the agnus castus tree, is taken, smeared with liquid pitch, and fastened at the first point of intersection. Then it is carried across obliquely to the succeeding intersections of longitudinal lines and circles, and as it advances, passing each of the points in due order and winding round, it is fastened at each intersection; and so, withdrawing from the first to the eighth point, it reaches and is fastened to the line to which its first part was fastened. Thus it makes as much progress in its longitudinal advance to the eighth point as in its oblique advance over eight points. In the same manner, withes for the eight divisions of the diameter, fastened obliquely at the intersections on the entire longitudinal and peripheral surface, make spiral channels which naturally look just like those of a snail shell.
3. Other withes are fastened on the line of the first, and on these still others, all smeared with liquid pitch, and built up until the total diameter is equal to one eighth of the length. These are covered and surrounded with boards, fastened on to protect the spiral. Then these boards are soaked with pitch, and bound together with strips of iron, so that they may not be separated by the pressure of the water. The ends of the shaft are covered with iron. To the right and left of the screw are beams, with crosspieces fastening them together at both ends. In these crosspieces are holes sheathed with iron, and into them pivots are introduced, and thus the screw is turned by the treading of men.

4. It is to be set up at the inclination corresponding to that which is produced in drawing the Pythagorean right-angled triangle: that is, let its length be divided into five parts; let three of them denote the height of the head of the screw; thus the distance from the base of the perpendicular to the nozzle of the screw at the bottom will be equal to four of those parts. A figure showing how this ought to be has been drawn at the end of the book, right on the back.

I have now described as clearly as I could, to make them better known, the principles on which wooden engines for raising water are constructed, and how they get their motion so that they may be of unlimited usefulness through their revolutions.

(Translation and diagram by Morris Hicky Morgan in Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1914. Republished by Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1960, Pages 295-297.)

http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Arc...rcesScrew.html

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http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/index.shtml

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Archimedes is considered one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time along with Newton and Gauss. In his own time, he was known as "the wise one," "the master" and "the great geometer" and his works and inventions brought him fame that lasts to this very day. He was one of the last great Greek mathematicians.
Born in 287 B.C., in Syracuse, a Greek seaport colony in Sicily, Archimedes was the son of Phidias, an astronomer. Except for his studies at Euclid's school in Alexandria, he spent his entire life in his birthplace. Archimedes proved to be a master at mathematics and spent most of his time contemplating new problems to solve, becoming at times so involved in his work that he forgot to eat. Lacking the blackboards and paper of modern times, he used any available surface, from the dust on the ground to ashes from an extinguished fire, to draw his geometric figures. Never giving up an opportunity to ponder his work, after bathing and anointing himself with olive oil, he would trace figures in the oil on his own skin.

Much of Archimedes fame comes from his relationship with Hiero, the king of Syracuse, and Gelon, Hiero's son. The great geometer had a close friendship with and may have been related to the monarch. In any case, he seemed to make a hobby out of solving the king's most complicated problems to the utter amazement of the sovereign. At one time, the king ordered a gold crown and gave the goldsmith the exact amount of metal to make it. When Hiero received it, the crown had the correct weight but the monarch suspected that some silver had been used instead of the gold. Since he could not prove it, he brought the problem to Archimedes. One day while considering the question, "the wise one" entered his bathtub and recognized that the amount of water that overflowed the tub was proportional the amount of his body that was submerged. This observation is now known as Archimedes' Principle and gave him the means to solve the problem. He was so excited that he ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting "Eureka! eureka!" (I have found it!). The fraudulent goldsmith was brought to justice. Another time, Archimedes stated "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the earth." King Hiero, who was absolutely astonished by the statement, asked him to prove it. In the harbor was a ship that had proved impossible to launch even by the combined efforts of all the men of Syracuse. Archimedes, who had been examining the properties of levers and pulleys, built a machine that allowed him the single-handedly move the ship from a distance away. He also had many other inventions including the Archimedes' watering screw and a miniature planetarium.

Though he had many great inventions, Archimedes considered his purely theoretical work to be his true calling. His accomplishments are numerous. His approximation of between 3-1/2 and 3-10/71 was the most accurate of his time and he devised a new way to approximate square roots. Unhappy with the unwieldy Greek number system, he devised his own that could accommodate larger numbers more easily. He invented the entire field of hydrostatics with the discovery of the Archimedes' Principle. However, his greatest invention was integral calculus. To determine the area of sections bounded by geometric figures such as parabolas and ellipses, Archimedes broke the sections into an infinite number of rectangles and added the areas together. This is known as integration. He also anticipated the invention of differential calculus as he devised ways to approximate the slope of the tangent lines to his figures. In addition, he also made many other discoveries in geometry, mechanics and other fields.

The end of Archimedes life was anything but uneventful. King Hiero had been so impressed with his friend's inventions that he persuaded him to develop weapons to defend the city. These inventions would prove quite useful. In 212 B.C., Marcellus, a Roman general, decided to conquer Syracuse with a full frontal assault on both land and sea. The Roman legions were routed. Huge catapults hurled 500 pound boulders at the soldiers; large cranes with claws on the end lowered down on the enemy ships, lifted them in the air, and then threw them against the rocks; and systems of mirrors focused the sun rays to light enemy ships on fire. The Roman soldiers refused to continue the attack and fled at the mere sight of anything projecting from the walls of the city. Marcellus was forced to lay siege to the city, which fell after eight months. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier when the city was taken. The traditional story is that the mathematician was unaware of the taking of the city. While he was drawing figures in the dust, a Roman soldier stepped on them and demanded he come with him. Archimedes responded, "Don't disturb my circles!" The soldier was so enraged that he pulled out his sword and slew the great geometer. When Archimedes was buried, they placed on his tombstone the figure of a sphere inscribed inside a cylinder and the 2:3 ratio of the volumes between them, the solution to the problem he considered his greatest achievement.

For related information on Archimedes, see: Euclid , Archimedien property.

http://web01.shu.edu/projects/reals/.../archimed.html

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http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekSc...rchimedes.html