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Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes
The extraordinary genius of Archimedes—scientist, mathematician, engineer, and showman. Many of us know little about Archimedes other than his “Eureka” exclamation upon discovering that he could immerse an object in a full tub of water and measure the spillage to determine the object’s volume. That simple observation helped establish the key principles of buoyancy that govern the flotation of hot-air balloons, boats, and denizens of the sea. Archimedes had a profound impact on the development of mathematics and from square roots to the stability of ships; number systems to levers; the value of pi to the size of the universe. Yet this same cerebral man developed machines of war that held at bay the greatest army of antiquity. Ironically, Archimedes’ reputation swelled to mythic proportions in the ancient world for his feats of the hand-cranked irrigation device—commonly known as “Archimedes’ screw”—and his ingenuous use of levers, pulleys, and ropes to launch, single-handedly, a fully laden ship! His rediscovered treatises guided nascent thinkers out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. Indeed, Archimedes’ cumulative record of achievement places him among the exalted ranks of Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. Eureka Man brings to life for general readers the genius of Archimedes, offering succinct and understandable explanations of some of his amazing discoveries and innovations.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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176 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 28, 2023
What an interesting book! I finished it feeling like I’d gained deeper insights into the ancient, Byzantine and early-modern eras and in the methods by which such information is either lost forever or transmitted and preserved.
Not being a math or geometry oriented person, I was afraid at first that the story of one of history’s greatest mathematicians, Archimedes, would lose me with its calculations and proofs. But this wasn’t the case. There were enough mathematical explanations to describe Archimedes’ achievements and discoveries but not too many or too complex for the average reader.
Some reviewers have criticized author Alan Hirshfeld’s format as being like 2-3 books in one, but as a historian, I found it fascinating. As a biography of a man who lived from 287-212 B.C. Hirshfeld provides as much information as possible about his obscure life. He then follows Archimedes’ scientific influence on Romans such as Cicero, medieval scholar/monks, through Renaissance figures like Plutarch and DaVinci, up through Victorian, 20th century and current era researchers. The author recounts this part of Archimedes’ story by tracing the provenance of his extant documents, which have their own history of survival over the turbulent centuries. However, most are gone by the 20th century except one ancient, tattered & moldy palimpsest, from which most of our current knowledge of Archimedes’ writings and theories derive.
I thoroughly enjoyed delving into the mind of an ancient Greek genius as well as following the historiographical mystery story of his lost documents.
Not being a math or geometry oriented person, I was afraid at first that the story of one of history’s greatest mathematicians, Archimedes, would lose me with its calculations and proofs. But this wasn’t the case. There were enough mathematical explanations to describe Archimedes’ achievements and discoveries but not too many or too complex for the average reader.
Some reviewers have criticized author Alan Hirshfeld’s format as being like 2-3 books in one, but as a historian, I found it fascinating. As a biography of a man who lived from 287-212 B.C. Hirshfeld provides as much information as possible about his obscure life. He then follows Archimedes’ scientific influence on Romans such as Cicero, medieval scholar/monks, through Renaissance figures like Plutarch and DaVinci, up through Victorian, 20th century and current era researchers. The author recounts this part of Archimedes’ story by tracing the provenance of his extant documents, which have their own history of survival over the turbulent centuries. However, most are gone by the 20th century except one ancient, tattered & moldy palimpsest, from which most of our current knowledge of Archimedes’ writings and theories derive.
I thoroughly enjoyed delving into the mind of an ancient Greek genius as well as following the historiographical mystery story of his lost documents.
March 30, 2025
I would not recommend this book to anyone. The information was sound, but the title is misleading.
This book was very informative. It highlighted the accomplishments of not just Archimedes, but of all the other important individuals that shaped antiquity.
I was a little disappointed that there was not a greater focus on the writings and achievements of Archimedes. This book was an audio book for me. It was a good listen on my drive to work.
There was nothing profound that I gathered from this book that I did not already know. The only new information that was presented was in the final chapters of the book. These chapters focused on how the original writings and teachings were sold to the museums of the modern world.
This book was very informative. It highlighted the accomplishments of not just Archimedes, but of all the other important individuals that shaped antiquity.
I was a little disappointed that there was not a greater focus on the writings and achievements of Archimedes. This book was an audio book for me. It was a good listen on my drive to work.
There was nothing profound that I gathered from this book that I did not already know. The only new information that was presented was in the final chapters of the book. These chapters focused on how the original writings and teachings were sold to the museums of the modern world.
April 29, 2013
The first half of this book is a wonderful history of Sicily leading up to the life of Archimedes mixing in some mathematics along the way. The second half tells the story of a lost papyrus, found to be the work of Archimedes. The story of this is interesting, but not as interesting as the first half, in my opinion.
July 8, 2012
Intrigued by the TED talk about Codex C, I picked this up and am very pleased that I did! We start at Syracuse, move into Archimedes' actual mathematical and practical works, then end with the story of the last palimpsest. Interesting!
February 18, 2020
Only half of this book could be called a biography. The other half chronicles the long and winding road that some of Archimedes' works traveled through time to us via a palimpsest. The book is quite dry in any case and the second half was somewhat of a chore for this reviewer to plow through.
For those of you out there that detest being talked down to, beware! The author occasionally employs the all too common method that some instructors use to convey ideas that they assume are too difficult for their students. When discussing the calculation of the volume of some geometric solids, for example, the author presumes that perhaps he'd better dumb things down. "Imagine a loaf of bread. Now imagine slicing the loaf..." is how it usually goes. As if maybe - just maybe - the student/reader will be able to identify with an object more familiar than a paraboloid. Or in another example, "Imagine an ice cream cone..."
Perhaps the above warning is too harsh. It may well be that Mr. Hirshfeld was trying to reach an audience that would benefit from the style of explanation described. I do believe however that some readers will find it irritating and unnecessary.
For those of you out there that detest being talked down to, beware! The author occasionally employs the all too common method that some instructors use to convey ideas that they assume are too difficult for their students. When discussing the calculation of the volume of some geometric solids, for example, the author presumes that perhaps he'd better dumb things down. "Imagine a loaf of bread. Now imagine slicing the loaf..." is how it usually goes. As if maybe - just maybe - the student/reader will be able to identify with an object more familiar than a paraboloid. Or in another example, "Imagine an ice cream cone..."
Perhaps the above warning is too harsh. It may well be that Mr. Hirshfeld was trying to reach an audience that would benefit from the style of explanation described. I do believe however that some readers will find it irritating and unnecessary.
March 13, 2021
Interesting read about Archimedes, truly an ancient genius, who was able to reach considerably further than his already impressive predecessors, even inventing some proto-calculus.
The trouble writing a book about his is that actually not very much is known about the Eureka Man, and so the book needed to add a rather wide historical context (far removed from the main character) as well as the misadventures of the extant (palimpsest) writings that have come to use (from Medieval copies).
The trouble writing a book about his is that actually not very much is known about the Eureka Man, and so the book needed to add a rather wide historical context (far removed from the main character) as well as the misadventures of the extant (palimpsest) writings that have come to use (from Medieval copies).
September 15, 2018
It's like trying to read three different books, which have been amalgamated together...and not always comfortably. On their own, the story of Archimedes, the story of writing, and the story of the rediscovery of one of his writings are all interesting, but don't always link together smoothly. The history of writing in particular verges on being a tangent deserving of a book of its own. Interesting, compelling, and a useful resource...but not quite the definitive work I was hoping to read.
September 8, 2022
First half was really good and second half was padding.
May 21, 2025
Listening to this was hard at times, especially when the narrator was doing math out loud. Informative, was heavy on the legacy, could have been shorter with not much lost.
November 12, 2009
Alan Hirschfeld is a professor of physics by day, but does a good job of moonlighting as a historian for this examination of Archimedes and his work.
Reaching back over 2200 years to the Sicily Archimedes knew, he creates the environment in which the mathematician lived and worked. During a brief period of peace and prosperity for his city of Syracuse, Archimedes created the basis for geometry, mathematically defied pii, and the mechanism of levers (and more!). He was heralded as a genius by his scientific contemporys and as a savior for his inventive weapons and defense mechanisms by his countrymen. The legend most people know is of him jumping out of a bathtub in the excitement of discovering the concept of water displaced equal to the weight of the submerged object. This arose from him devising a way to detect base metals substituted for gold in a commissioned piece for the king.
Part One describes what is known of the man, the era in which he lived, and his work. The reader is guided through the mathematical theroms with a light guiding hand, and a clear style that the non-mathematician will appreciate.
Part Two traces the tract of this visionary’s work to the modern day. Along the journey we learn the microeconomics of papyrus scroll production, its relatively short lifespan, and the industry of manuscript copying that kept Archimedes work alive. In the mid 9th century, under the direction of a Byzantine librarian named Leo, his work is compiled from separate scrolls into three parchment codex (early book forms). Already over 1000 years after the life of Archimedes, these three codex form the root of all subsequent copies of his work. Three hundred years later, one of the codex is erased and overwritten with an orthodox liturgical guide to Easter services. The overwritten work (palimpsest) is re-discovered in the early 20th century, and is the only one to survive to the 21st century. The other two were discovered by the scientists of the renaissance who again heralded this ancient Greek as a genius, upon who’s work modern mathematics is based.
Hirschfeld draws a direct line through history to trace the discoveries and survival of Archimedes work. While he apparently veers off at a tangent at times, it is only to better illustrate the journey taken.
Reaching back over 2200 years to the Sicily Archimedes knew, he creates the environment in which the mathematician lived and worked. During a brief period of peace and prosperity for his city of Syracuse, Archimedes created the basis for geometry, mathematically defied pii, and the mechanism of levers (and more!). He was heralded as a genius by his scientific contemporys and as a savior for his inventive weapons and defense mechanisms by his countrymen. The legend most people know is of him jumping out of a bathtub in the excitement of discovering the concept of water displaced equal to the weight of the submerged object. This arose from him devising a way to detect base metals substituted for gold in a commissioned piece for the king.
Part One describes what is known of the man, the era in which he lived, and his work. The reader is guided through the mathematical theroms with a light guiding hand, and a clear style that the non-mathematician will appreciate.
Part Two traces the tract of this visionary’s work to the modern day. Along the journey we learn the microeconomics of papyrus scroll production, its relatively short lifespan, and the industry of manuscript copying that kept Archimedes work alive. In the mid 9th century, under the direction of a Byzantine librarian named Leo, his work is compiled from separate scrolls into three parchment codex (early book forms). Already over 1000 years after the life of Archimedes, these three codex form the root of all subsequent copies of his work. Three hundred years later, one of the codex is erased and overwritten with an orthodox liturgical guide to Easter services. The overwritten work (palimpsest) is re-discovered in the early 20th century, and is the only one to survive to the 21st century. The other two were discovered by the scientists of the renaissance who again heralded this ancient Greek as a genius, upon who’s work modern mathematics is based.
Hirschfeld draws a direct line through history to trace the discoveries and survival of Archimedes work. While he apparently veers off at a tangent at times, it is only to better illustrate the journey taken.
January 7, 2010
I got this on a pre-publication promotion (through Goodreads!, my first!), started reading it in October, took me a LONG time to finish it. This is a short book (206 pages of text, almost as many pages of notes and resources), but very dense in content. The book is divided into two parts: The first relates to Archimedes' life and (dizzying) mathematical theories, as well as his machines of war and creative use of pulleys. The second is concerned with the discovery of Archimedes' manuscripts, their translations into Latin and Arabic and French, and their "hidden" nature for so many years as palimpsests (parchment/vellum in which the original writing has been scrubbed away to make way for other manuscripts, usually sacred texts from the Middle Ages). So these manuscripts of Archimedes made a number of journeys, from Greece to Constantinople (Istanbul, if one believes They Might Be Giants) to mountaintop abbeys. Aside from a superfluous history of handwriting, this shows both the excitement and the frustration and just plain guesswork that goes into historical research (Think of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" as a historical resource for"The DaVinci Code").
As for the first section, one learns quite quickly that this Archimedes guy was a pure genius with the mathematics, but I am glad I took both geometry and Calculus in my college years, for the explanations of his proofs depend to some extent on those areas of study to appreciate them. Additionally, some of his "fun" mathematical puzzles are maddeningly complicated, such that even with high speed computers in today's society the answers don't come easy. Archimedes' death (I won't give it away) is an example of existential irony, so I shall leave it at that.
Archimedes lived somewhaere around 200+ BC, in Syracuse, Sicily, amidst a grat deal of warfare between the Roman and Carthaginian Empires. The biggest complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't have any maps of the ancient Mediterranean world to give a visual depiction of just what was at stake and how Sicily fit in (well, OK, I DID go onto Google and got a few, which helped, but I'd recommend that the publishers put in some maps for their next editions.
This is a scholarly work, takes some time to get through but well worth it. Whew!
As for the first section, one learns quite quickly that this Archimedes guy was a pure genius with the mathematics, but I am glad I took both geometry and Calculus in my college years, for the explanations of his proofs depend to some extent on those areas of study to appreciate them. Additionally, some of his "fun" mathematical puzzles are maddeningly complicated, such that even with high speed computers in today's society the answers don't come easy. Archimedes' death (I won't give it away) is an example of existential irony, so I shall leave it at that.
Archimedes lived somewhaere around 200+ BC, in Syracuse, Sicily, amidst a grat deal of warfare between the Roman and Carthaginian Empires. The biggest complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't have any maps of the ancient Mediterranean world to give a visual depiction of just what was at stake and how Sicily fit in (well, OK, I DID go onto Google and got a few, which helped, but I'd recommend that the publishers put in some maps for their next editions.
This is a scholarly work, takes some time to get through but well worth it. Whew!
July 12, 2012
I liked the first few chapters where the author talks about Archimedes and his accomplishments, but I don't think he does a very good job of making these accomplishments come to life or the man behind them for that matter. The math was interesting if admittedly hard to follow in some spots but the thing that really put me off about this book is that 3/4ths of it is a chronology of the works of Archemdies and how it came to be and what we have that has survived to the modern day. The "codex's" and who owned them, got stolen, passed hands through etc. I just don't find this as interesting as reading about the man and his accomplishments which I would have liked to have read more about. I understand that much is unknown and much is lost but the book still seems to be lacking in this area. Archimedes was such a genies of his time I would like to have read more about HIM and less about how we have what works survived.
August 18, 2015
A fascinating guy like old Archy deserves a somewhat more fascinating book. The sections on his life in Sicily, and how he got shoehorned into defending Syracuse with miraculous and horrific weapons, were the most interesting to me. The sketched summaries of his abstract mathematical audaciousness were also pat enough for an innumerate such as meself to take in. The trail his works took through the libraries of the good and the great made reasonable reading for a while, with disguised monks and palimpsest over-writings spicing the tale (& highlighting the role of religion in knowledge preservation over the years), but in the end became a tedious collection of repetitions and over-detailed descriptions of 19th Century auctions. Shame.
3-
3-
September 22, 2009
I am no student of ancient cultures. Before I talk, I should read a book. So I read this one. Very worthwhile on several counts. First, ancient mathematics, despite the fact that I am neither ancient nor mathematical has a certain intellectual appeal. Archimedes rarely comes to life--how can he at this remove? But we have his works however filtered through the centuries and media of information transmittal. This book includes a fascinating and readable account of the varied histories of "printing" and "publishing" before the printing press. And just the idea of finding lost books and hidden writings that can somehow be resurrected is interesting of itself.
January 18, 2012
Since little is known about the life of Archimedes, Hirshfeld spends relatively little time attempting to chronicle the events of it. Instead the majority of the book deals with Archimedes' mathematical theories, with their practical application in the realm of war, and with the history of the three Byzantine manuscripts containing his writings: Codex A, Codex B, and, most remarkable of the lot, Codex C (known as the Archimedes Palimpsest). The book is not at all times fascinating - at least not if you don't happen to be a fan of mathematics - but Hirshfeld's writing style is admirable and he draws the reader in as he traces Archimedes through the ages.
May 31, 2010
Professor of physics writes book that is interesting in spurts, but basically esoteric in the extreme except perhaps to those who are educated in his interests. The first twenty pages builds up interest, then wanders into mathematical vagaries. The last chapters revive the reader with the story of the palimpsest. Archimedes (literally "Master of Thought,") is probably a pseudonym, so we don't today even know the man's real name. Whatever his name, well before the arrival of Christ, he gave us the key principles of buoyancy, the value of pi, and ingenious and various feats of engineering.
September 9, 2013
The two halves of the book are not well-integrated but each part is interesting in and of itself. It is hard to believe that all Archimedes' writings depend on so few sources. The history and mysteries surrounding Codex A, B and C could be used for a "Daughter of Time" tale. The author might have spent a bit longer describing the new technologies which were used on Codex C after its 1998 purchase and conservation by the Walters Art Gallery; after all they did result in further proof of Archimedes' genius.
January 5, 2016
Archimedes deserves a better treatment, although that's probably difficult given the few things about him. The first part is interesting, giving a good background in Syracuse, where Archimedes was born, developed his mathematics and made his scientific discoverings. The second part is about the story of his Palimpsest, one of his lost documents during the Middle Ages and rediscovered at thar beginning of the 20th century. This second part is interesting, but not as much as the first one. It's almost like two different books.
October 31, 2009
A great read to one of the world's (not just the ancient world's) analytical thinkers. This book has a lot of good information about how math concepts were discovered over time by Archmedes. Some of the concepts are even illustrated in the text. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to read a great educational, interesting and historical read.
December 8, 2012
I enjoyed the beginning of the book, which was about Archimedes himself, but I wasn't very captivated by the history of his manuscript, although the way it was accidentally preserved is pretty interesting. I wish we knew more about Archimedes. He and Newton top the list of my favorite mathematicians.
August 3, 2021
Half historical biography, half the story of a manuscript. A faun of a book, not goat, not man. Interesting enough, but with Archimedes there's just not enough there, there. So you have to go elsewhere. Glad to learn that Archimedes was way ahead of his time, not so glad to learn where a manuscript went.
February 6, 2010
Reading about Archimedes accomplishments and methods is interesting, but this book was very dense and at times difficult to get through.
November 6, 2010
I found this in the library catalog by accident and decided to read it because of the amusing title. Unfortunately, it was extremely boring, so it is being returned mostly unread.
October 6, 2013
Quite a good book. Its only weakness is a bit of dragging in discussing the journey of the manuscript. Made me greatly appreciate the calculus as making things simpler.
January 26, 2010
Wow, Archimedes was really, really smart.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews