The Greek thinker Archimedes became famous not only as the author of the exclamation “Eureka!1” (the Greek word for an unexpected discovery). It was mainly due to his ingenious inventions and innovative machines that he managed to defend Syracuse against the mighty Roman war machine for a long time. Archimedes was born in Syracuse (a town in the south-east of Sicily) c. 287 BCE, and was educated in Alexandria.
