Did you know that most of the most impressive accomplishments in Ancient Greece took place during a fifty year period known as the Golden Age of Athens?
The golden boys of Athens - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Alexander the Great - all lived and did their work during that time. Just after them came Archimedes, who did enough discovering on his own to put Einstein to shame. Pi, specific gravity, the archimedes screw for irrigation, a new model of the solar system, displacement and more were all ideas born from the mind of this brilliant man. Unfortunately, he tended to get so wrapped up in the problems he was working that he forgot the fundamentals of life like getting dressed, bathing, and eating. In fact, his death came as the result of his wandering absent-mindedly about the streets while the city was under attack.
The things Archimedes and his friends knew and discovered were long forgotten. And though we knew they were brilliant, we had no idea how brilliant until just this week.
According to CNN, a device recovered from an ancient Greek shipwreck back in 1901 has just been determined to be an incredibly intricate astronomical device, the first mechanical calculator we know of. It could add, subtract. multiply, divide, track eclipses and the route of the moon. Much of this amazing machine had to be based on the work and study Archimedes had done earlier in the same century.
For one man to be remembered for his accomplishments so long after he died speaks to the importance of his work. I wonder how many people know about Archimedes and his discoveries compared to how many know about another man who lived not long after?
Archimedes explained small parts of the world and he is remembered as a great mind. But Jesus Christ changed the world forever.
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