A Profile in Genius: Archimedes
What is a Genius? A "genius" is a difficult thing to define. I believe there are geniuses in many different facets of life: there are musical geniuses, there are literary geniuses, there are philosophical geniuses, and I would even argue that there are geniuses who have simply perfected how to make an awesome sandwich. I think everyone is a sort of "genius," since we all have the capacity to make life-changing discoveries and we are all able to make some sort of impact in some way. One person who I consider to be a mathematical "genius" is Archimedes. A brilliant mathematician, his influence is still felt today, since we use much of his area and volume conjectures (more on that later) and we even use some of his inventions, such as the Archimedean screw. In this case, he has definitely shown his capacity to change the world, and I am completely fascinated by him. I would like to take this time to share my (probably shallow) knowledge of this fantastic ...