imaginedc. 287 – 212 BCESicily (Greek world)imagined, 1620
Archimedes of Syracuse
Endless tiny pieces can add up to a single, exact answer.
A short story
A scholar in the ancient Greek city of Syracuse, in Sicily. He measured the area inside a parabola by imagining it cut into endless tiny strips, eighteen hundred years before anyone called this idea integration. The most famous story about him is that he shouted Eureka! (I have found it!) when an idea struck him in the bath.
In their own words
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.
Attributed to Archimedes by Pappus of Alexandria, c. 340 (about his work on levers).
The lab their idea turned into
Area Lab
Fill the space under a curve with skinny rectangles.
Open Area Lab →