1,000-Year-Old Text by Archimedes Finally on Display, page 1

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Topic started on 17-10-2011 @ 05:43 PM by barkingdogamato

I saw this and had to share it. I would love to see this, a text written from the original scrolls of one of the greatest mathematicians and inventors would be awesome.I have always admired Archimedes as I am a engineer, and a amateur astronomer.

After more than a decade of restoration and study, the public is getting a glimpse at the oldest surviving copy of works by an ancient Greek mathematical genius at the Walters Art Museum.

The exhibition, "Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes," which opened Sunday, tells the story of the 1,000-year-old text and the work of dozens of scientists and scholars who uncovered its secrets. After the exhibition closes Jan. 1, the Archimedes Palimpsest will be returned to its anonymous owner.

"This is a chance for the public to see the Archimedes Palimpsest in all its glory," said Will Noel, Archimedes Project director and Walters curator of manuscripts and rare books. When the manuscript sold at auction for $2 million in 1998, it was known to contain some of Archimedes' most famous theories.

"And we see, throughout, hints of someone standing triumphant at the borders of the ancient world, peering at us through accumulated catastrophes and layers of destruction, and surviving — just like the hero of any good thriller."

Lost and Found: The Archimedes Palimpsest

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If anyone happens to get to see this please let me know if it's as inspiring as I hope.

reply posted on 17-10-2011 @ 06:13 PM by MamaJ

This is really neat....too bad we cannot read word for word the theories laid out....it would be a really interesting read!!!

reply posted on 17-10-2011 @ 06:24 PM by Highlander64

By the time they had finished, the team that worked on the book had recovered Archimedes' secrets, rewritten the history of mathematics and discovered entirely new texts from the ancient world.

yes,

but not a word about what they actually found

and judging by the website - they are not going to tell anyone anytime soon

reply posted on 17-10-2011 @ 06:35 PM by Hanslune

reply to post by Highlander64

The Book's Contents

Firstly, and most importantly, they used a book containing at least seven treatises by Archimedes. These treatises are The Equilibrium of Planes, Spiral Lines, The Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, On Floating Bodies, The Method of Mechanical Theorems, and the Stomachion. Of these treatises, the last three are of the greatest significance of our understanding of Archimedes. While the other treatises had survived through other manuscripts, there is no other surviving copy of On Floating Bodies in Greek – the language in which Archimedes wrote, and there is no version in any language of The Method of Mechanical Theorems and of this part of the Stomachion. The Archimedes manuscript was used for the majority of the pages of the prayer book. The Archimedes manuscript was written in the second half of the tenth century, almost certainly in Constantinople.

To what is in that book

edit on 17/10/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 17-10-2011 @ 10:34 PM by RightWingAvenger

reply to post by barkingdogamato

You know it's sad that the book was only worth 2 million when a stupid football player is worth over 10 times that. I'd love to find a book like that in a yardsale junk bin or thrift store.

The fact that it survived is nothing short of amazing. I wonder what the owner has in his collection. Perhaps he's a big grey bearded gandolf type guy working on the philosophers stone.

reply posted on 18-10-2011 @ 12:58 AM by Byrd

Originally posted by Hanslune
reply to post by Highlander64

The Book's Contents

Firstly, and most importantly, they used a book containing at least seven treatises by Archimedes. These treatises are The Equilibrium of Planes, Spiral Lines, The Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, On Floating Bodies, The Method of Mechanical Theorems, and the Stomachion. Of these treatises, the last three are of the greatest significance of our understanding of Archimedes. While the other treatises had survived through other manuscripts, there is no other surviving copy of On Floating Bodies in Greek – the language in which Archimedes wrote, and there is no version in any language of The Method of Mechanical Theorems and of this part of the Stomachion. The Archimedes manuscript was used for the majority of the pages of the prayer book. The Archimedes manuscript was written in the second half of the tenth century, almost certainly in Constantinople.

To what is in that book
edit on 17/10/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)

We should probably also note that the math in these books, which was advanced and very esoteric for the time, is old hat by now and has been superseded by calculus (which wasn't possible in Archimedes' times) and by better science.

reply posted on 18-10-2011 @ 01:27 AM by Hanslune

Originally posted by Byrd

Originally posted by Hanslune
reply to post by Highlander64

The Book's Contents

Firstly, and most importantly, they used a book containing at least seven treatises by Archimedes. These treatises are The Equilibrium of Planes, Spiral Lines, The Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, On Floating Bodies, The Method of Mechanical Theorems, and the Stomachion. Of these treatises, the last three are of the greatest significance of our understanding of Archimedes. While the other treatises had survived through other manuscripts, there is no other surviving copy of On Floating Bodies in Greek – the language in which Archimedes wrote, and there is no version in any language of The Method of Mechanical Theorems and of this part of the Stomachion. The Archimedes manuscript was used for the majority of the pages of the prayer book. The Archimedes manuscript was written in the second half of the tenth century, almost certainly in Constantinople.

To what is in that book
edit on 17/10/11 by Hanslune because: (no reason given)

We should probably also note that the math in these books, which was advanced and very esoteric for the time, is old hat by now and has been superseded by calculus (which wasn't possible in Archimedes' times) and by better science.

Yeah but it is a foundation of science and math - interesting how little value the monks had for his works - of course it might have been a common book when it was 'recycled'.

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