[PatrickHenry]

Archimedes hasn't had a good thread lately.

[PatrickHenry]

SciencePing

An elite subset of the Evolution list. See the list's description at my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail to be added or dropped.

[skinkinthegrass]

Thanks, for the post, PH. :D

[Socratic]

Archimedes hasn't had a good thread lately.

One might have thought that the topic of Archimedes was threadbare, but apparently not. (Interesting read)

[Larry Lucido]

Just realized that I've never seen a Math ping list on FR.

[Lockbar]

In honor of this Archimedes thread, I will now post a pic of a lever and fulcrum:

[Erasmus]

Archimedes hasn't had a good thread lately.

s/thread/screw/

[snowsislander]

There's nothing more important and more romantic in the history of ancient science and currently in the history of medieval manuscripts. We're discovering new readings of Archimedes.

Truly, it is a fantastic occurrence. It's even more improbable (and more interesting) than, say, finding the exact formula for Greek Fire.

[Junior]

The palimpsest is a 1,000-year-old parchment made of goatskin containing Archimedes' work as laboriously copied down by a 10th century scribe. Two centuries later, with parchment harder to come by, the ink was erased with a weak acid (like lemon juice) and scraped off with a pumice stone, and the parchment was written on again to make a prayer book.

An early example of religion suppressing science.

[Bear_Slayer]

upon displacing water in his tub and realizing he had found a way to measure volumes, leapt out of the bath and ran naked through the streets shouting 'Eureka!' (I have found it!).

Actually . . .

He preferred to take cold baths, then the whim hit him. "I think I'll take a hot bath." he found a missing appendage . . . and the rest is history. :-)

[6SJ7]

LOL! Good one! Took me a minute before I said Eureka!

[6SJ7]

Two centuries later, with parchment harder to come by, the ink was erased with a weak acid (like lemon juice) and scraped off with a pumice stone...

I'm not sure I buy this explanation. Sounds like a lot of work to 'recycle' this bit of parchment. What, was there a shortage of goatskins suddenly? This sounds more like a rather strange 'coverup' for reasons now unknown.

[GOPJ]

Three pages of the palimpsest recently traveled to Menlo Park because SSRL staff scientist Uwe Bergmann had his own Eureka moment in 2003. From a magazine article, he learned the inks used for both the Archimedes and religious texts contained iron pigment.

"I read that and I immediately thought we should be able to read the parchment with X-rays," Bergmann said. "That's what we do at SSRL — we measure iron in proteins — extremely small concentrations of iron."

Thank you Bergmann - thanks from all of us. What a great find.

[Amelia]

Interesting stuff.

[Dimensio]

Hmm...

[dljordan]

That's very cool.

[Dead Dog]

hey wait, how was he using Calculous if the Arabs hadn't taught us dhimmis Algerbra yet???

[Doctor Stochastic]

So you could screw up enough courage to leverage this into a wedge document?

[SunkenCiv]

A ping, and a similar story to supplement:

The Mystery of Archimedes
by Ned Potter
October 20, 2000

In 1998, an anonymous collector bought the book at auction -- not for its looks, but for what's hidden inside: the mathematical genius of the ancient Greek Archimedes. It is believed that Archimedes wrote his original theories about 300 years before Jesus was born. Then, around the year 1000 A.D., his writings were copied into the book that the collector bought... [A]round 1200 AD, a monk took the book, scraped off the original ink and re-used the pages for a prayer book.

[probably a dead link, from the hard drive files]

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Neither has Posidippus of Pella, although he did put in my windows.

A Mummy's Bequest: Poems From a Master
by John Noble Wilford
Nov 26, 2002

Written in the third century B.C., the poems on the papyrus appear to be 112 collected works of Posidippus of Pella, a prominent writer of epigrams, and constitute what scholars say is the oldest surviving example of a Greek poetry book... The papyrus scroll held one striking surprise: the absence of erotic verse. Judging by his previously known poems, mainly preserved in an anthology from about 100 B.C., Posidippus had a lusty interest in sex.

[SunkenCiv]

Google search worked better:

Archaeologists discover alma mater of Archimedes
The Los Angeles Times | May 9, 2004 | Thomas Maugh II
Posted on 05/09/2004 11:03:56 PM PDT by SteveH
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1132565/posts?page=2