Читать книгу Magic Shadows. The Story of the Origin of Motion Pictures онлайн

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Archimedes liked to bathe with a tub full of water and this particular afternoon he noted that a considerable amount of water was spilled over the sides of the tub as he stepped in. He immediately and correctly concluded that there was a relation between the mass of his body and the weight of the water displaced. Then according to tradition he rushed home, through the streets of Syracuse, naked, in order to test the King’s crown, shouting “Eureka—I have found it.”

This talented Greek was keenly aware of his scientific prowess and was not a man to keep his ideas secret. He promised to lift the world with a lever (the principle of which he had developed scientifically) provided someone would furnish him a fulcrum. There were no takers.

When Archimedes was 73 years old and respected throughout the civilized world for his work in mathematics and science, the Roman invader Marcellus lay siege to Syracuse. At the beginning of the two long years of struggle, Archimedes put aside his theoretical work and with the vigor of a youth helped to defend the city, inventing numerous engines of war for the purpose. In this he was the real pioneer of the scientists of our own day who perfected in wartime the atomic bomb, radar and other devices.