Archimedes was a person.
Archimedes . Archimedes of Syracuse ( [ ˌɑːkɪˈmiːdiːz ] Ἀρχιμήδης ) was a Greek mathematician , physicist , engineer , inventor , and astronomer . Although few details of his life are known , he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity . He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena , founding hydrostatics and statics , including an explanation of the principle of the lever . Cicero describes visiting the tomb of Archimedes , which was surmounted by a sphere and a cylinder , which Archimedes had requested to be placed on his tomb , representing his mathematical discoveries . Mathematicians from Alexandria read and quoted him , but the first comprehensive compilation was not made until by Isidore of Miletus in Byzantine Constantinople , while commentaries on the works of Archimedes written by Eutocius in the sixth century AD opened them to wider readership for the first time .