what are the major Archimedes inventions and how do they work?

Answer 1

"The first of Archimedes' inventions was called the Archimedean screw. He invented the screw because he saw how hard it was for the Egyptians to carry water buckets around their whole fields. The screw was like a hand pump that was used to spray water directly from the Nile onto the fields. Archimedes spent all of his time pouring over mathematical and scientific problems. He considered his greatest accomplishment to be his discovery of how a sphere was 2/3 the volume of a cylinder that had an equal height and width. He also discovered a way to find the measurement of a circle and the volume of solids. Levers and pulleys are another of Archimedes discoveries. These discoveries are just a part of the many doors that Archimedes opened for new scientific discoveries.

Archimedes was also an astronomer and made contributions to this science as well. Archimedes used geometry and astronomical observation to accurately find the circumference of the earth with in a few hundred miles. Archimedes built a machine that helped him to measure the angles of the rising sun. His machine helped him to correctly calculate the length of a year (the current Greek year of Archimedes' time relied on the phases of the moon to calculate a year, and so were constantly having days added and taken off)."

Answer 2

the eponymous archimedes' screw and his so called archimedes' death ray. how do they work? damn well. the screw is still in common use, today, and the "death ray" is, essentially, a REALLY BIG solar cooker, another device still in use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes%27_screw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mirrors.htm

Answer 3

archimedes principle.

Answer 4

pi

hydraulic screw - for raising water from a lower to a higher level

http://www.crystalinks.com/archimedes.html