Saturday, February 03, 2007
Extraneous Posting
BBC - Archimedes Secrets
Archimedes had one of the greatest minds in ancient Greece. This documentary by the BBC chronicles the history of one of his greatest achievements, unknown until just recently. This book, titled "The Method", goes beyond mathematical proofs showing the beginnings of calculus and prove that Archimedes had taken calculus much further than previously thought. Newton and other renaissance mathematicians would have gained immeasurably from this book. But that's not what makes it so amazing. Unlike Archimedes other writings, The Method explains how he arrived at his thoughts and describes his process of thinking.
The documentary also shows the turbulent history this book has endured. A monk in Europe produced the only known copy of this work. Another monk would later convert it into a common prayer book, unknowingly almost losing some of the greatest mathematical writings of ancient Greece. A book with multiple layers of written text is known as a palimpsest. Despite most of the text being "lost" for hundreds of years, advancements in the recovery of ancient texts mainly through mixing ultraviolet light and primary color light have helped researches recover much of what would otherwise be lost.
It's fascinating! Go watch it!
BBC - Archimedes Secrets
Archimedes had one of the greatest minds in ancient Greece. This documentary by the BBC chronicles the history of one of his greatest achievements, unknown until just recently. This book, titled "The Method", goes beyond mathematical proofs showing the beginnings of calculus and prove that Archimedes had taken calculus much further than previously thought. Newton and other renaissance mathematicians would have gained immeasurably from this book. But that's not what makes it so amazing. Unlike Archimedes other writings, The Method explains how he arrived at his thoughts and describes his process of thinking.
The documentary also shows the turbulent history this book has endured. A monk in Europe produced the only known copy of this work. Another monk would later convert it into a common prayer book, unknowingly almost losing some of the greatest mathematical writings of ancient Greece. A book with multiple layers of written text is known as a palimpsest. Despite most of the text being "lost" for hundreds of years, advancements in the recovery of ancient texts mainly through mixing ultraviolet light and primary color light have helped researches recover much of what would otherwise be lost.
It's fascinating! Go watch it!
