Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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"A solid sphere has 2/3 the volume of a circumscribed cylinder." This is the theorem Archimedes wanted carved on his headstone.

While he proved this theorem rigorously, using the method of exhaustion in his book _On Sphere and Cylinder_, this last century a new document surfaced: a letter from Archimedes to his colleague Erastosthenes, entitled _The Method_. This letter has tremendous historical and mathematical significance because it is explains Archimedes' thought processes and his heuristic reasoning which led to the discovery of the above result. _The Method_ indicates the Greeks arrived at their results by a radically different path than shown in their writings, such as Euclid's _Elements_.

I will explain what The Method is (like all great ideas, it's child's play to show how it works) and a little history of how _The Method_ was rediscovered and some facts and stories about Archimedes. So it'll be like a history lesson and math lesson in one.