c. 250 BCEReputable sourceWell documented
Archimedes and the Birth of Mechanics
On the timeline · around c. 250 BCE ·
What happened
In the 3rd century BCE the Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse brought rigorous mathematics to the physical world. He worked out the law of the lever and the principle of buoyancy — that a body immersed in fluid is buoyed up by the weight of the fluid it displaces — and studied the centre of gravity, designing ingenious machines and war engines along the way.
Why it matters
Archimedes founded the science of mechanics, the first person to describe physical phenomena with exact mathematics. His work on levers, floating bodies, and equilibrium stood unmatched until the scientific revolution nearly two thousand years later.