Archimedes

We can only speculate about the effect that the "method" would have had on the development of calculus had it been known in the 16th and 17th centuries. During the 2005 season, Manny Ramírez is the 3rd highest paid player in Major League Baseball at the yearly salary of $19,906,820.00. As a result, his mechanical method was lost until around 1900, after the arithmetization of analysis had been carried out successfully. His season was capped off by being named the MVP of the World Series as he led the Red Sox to their first title since 1918. Many of his works were lost when the library of Alexandria was burnt (twice actually) and survived only in Latin or Arabic translations. Along with Derek Jeter (a single), Ichiro Suzuki (a double) and Iván Rodríguez (a triple), Ramírez made history as the American League became the first All-Star team to hit for the cycle during the same inning. During the Middle Ages the mathematicians who could understand Archimedes' work were few and far between. In the All-Star Game, facing Roger Clemens in the top of the first inning, Ramirez knocked out a two-run home run giving his teammates an immediate 3-0 lead.

He and his contemporaries probably constitute the peak of Greek mathematical rigour. Also along with Ortiz, Ramírez hit back-to-back home runs six times, tying the major league single season set by Hank Greenberg and Rudy York (Detroit Tigers) and Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordóñez (Chicago White Sox). Archimedes' works were not widely recognized, even in antiquity. In addition, Ramírez and David Ortiz became the first pair of American League teammates to hit 40 home runs, have 100 RBI, and bat .300 since the Yankees Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931, and the first Red Sox duo with 40 homers since Tony Armas and Jim Rice (1984). Pappus of Alexandria writes that Archimedes had written a practical book on the construction of such spheres entitled On Sphere-Making. He led the American League in home runs (43), slugging average (.613) and OPS (1.009); finished 3rd in RBI (130), 6th in on base percentage (.397), 8th in base on balls (82), 10th in runs (108), and posted a .308 batting average. For some time this was assumed to be a legend of doubtful nature, but the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism has changed the view of this issue, and it is indeed probable that Archimedes possessed and constructed such devices. Coupled with impressive play on the field, this absolved Ramírez in the eyes of many Boston fans and sportswriters.

He credits Thales and Eudoxus for constructing these devices. He displayed a good attitude and an enthusiasm for playing, two qualities his critics had charged that he lacked. One device mapped the sky on a sphere and the other predicted the motions of the sun and the moon and the planets (i.e., an orrery). In 2004, nevertheless, Ramírez silenced his critics. Apart from general physics he was an astronomer, and Cicero writes that the Roman consul Marcellus brought two devices back to Rome from the sacked city of Syracuse. All 29 other teams passed, due to the length and costs of his contract. Using only ancient Greek geometry, he also gave the equilibrium positions of floating sections of paraboloids as a function of their height, a feat that would be taxing to a modern physicist using calculus. After the season, the Red Sox put him on irrevocable waivers, meaning he was had but for the asking.

He was the first to identify the concept of center of gravity, and he found the centers of gravity of various geometric figures, assuming uniform density in their interiors, including triangles, paraboloids, and hemispheres. Despite his strong play in the 2003 post-season, Ramírez's Red Sox lost in heartbreaking fashion to Wilson's Yankees in the ALCS. (He famously discovered the latter when he was asked to determine whether a crown had been made of pure gold, or gold adulterated with silver; he realized that the rise in the water level when it was immersed would be equal to the volume of the crown, and the decrease in the weight of the crown would be in proportion; he could then compare those with the values of an equal weight of pure gold). When it was learned that he had been seen in a hotel bar with close friend, Yankees infielder Enrique Wilson, the controversy grew, causing Boston manager Grady Little to bench Ramírez for one game. He invented the field of statics, enunciated the law of the lever, the law of equilibrium of fluids and the law of buoyancy. Some Red Sox fans criticized the outfielder, saying he should have played despite the ailment. Archimedes is probably also the first mathematical physicist on record, and the best before Galileo and Newton. In the summer of 2003, Ramirez found himself as the latest victim of the Boston Sports Media's thirst for blood when he missed several games with pharyngitis.

He proved that the area and volume of the sphere are in the same ratio to the area and volume of a circumscribed straight cylinder, a result he was so proud of that he made it his epitaph. His 165 RBI total in 1999 was the highest by any player since Jimmie Foxx in 1938; and made him the first player to have more RBI's than games played in a season since Ted Williams in 1949. Archimedes also gave a quite different proof of nearly the same proposition by a method using infinitesimals (see "How Archimedes used infinitesimals"). He made the All-Star team four times, and hit 127 homers and 432 RBI in 415 games over last three seasons. Essentially, this paragraph summarizes the proof. From 1993 to 2000 Ramírez collected 236 home runs and 804 RBI in 967 games for the Cleveland Indians, including a career-high 45 home runs in 1998, and a team-record career-high 165 RBI in 1999, when he hit .333 with 44 homers and 131 runs (also a career-high). If the first term in this series is the area of the triangle in the illustration then the second is the sum of the areas of two triangles whose bases are the two smaller secant lines in the illustration. During the 2004 season, he was nominated for play of the year because of a spectacular catch he made in left field at Yankee Stadium to rob Miguel Cairo of a home-run.

In the process, he calculated the oldest known example of a geometric series with the ratio 1/4:. While playing for Cleveland in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the 1998 American League Championship Series, he turned his back on a line drive off the bat of the New York Yankees Derek Jeter and attempted a leaping catch at the top of the right field wall, only to have the ball hit him in the back of the feet. The vertex must be so placed that the two horizontal distances mentioned in the illustration are equal.). Ramirez has been known to be involved in several comical misadventures while playing the outfield. "Height" means the length of the segment parallel to the axis from the vertex to the base. Ramírez is aggressive playing balls off the Green Monster and holding runners to singles. The "base" is any secant line, not necessarily orthogonal to the parabola's axis; "the same base" means the same "horizontal" component of the length of the base; "horizontal" means orthogonal to the axis. He still has trouble at times with footwork, his range is limited, but his arm is fairly strong and he has soft hands.

(See the illustration below. Ramírez is a serviceable fielder, although is unlikely to win any Gold Glove Awards. He proved that the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line is 4/3 the area of a triangle with equal base and height. He has good power that way and seems content to go with the pitch, but he is not afraid to take the occasional free walk. He was the first, and possibly the only, Greek mathematician to introduce mechanical curves (those traced by a moving point) as legitimate objects of study. He does most of his damage from center field to the right field line. He did not call this ratio π but he gave a procedure to approximate it to arbitrary accuracy and gave an approximation of it as between 3 + 1/7 and 3 + 10/71. He combines power, contact and patience at the plate, against left-handed pitchers and righties equally well, but he still doesn't pull the ball very often for a power hitter.

He proved that the ratio of a circle's perimeter to its diameter is the same as the ratio of the circle's area to the square of the radius. Ramirez is universally considered one of the best all-around righthanded hitters in the American League. To what extent he actually had a correct version of integral calculus is debatable. He has totaled 390 home runs and 1270 RBI in 1535 games. He devised a heuristic method based on statistics to do private calculation that we would classify today as integral calculus, but then presented rigorous geometric proofs for his results. Through the 2004 season, Ramírez is a career .316 hitter, with a .397 on base percentage and a .613 slugging average. In a civilization with an awkward numeral system and a language in which "a myriad" (literally "ten thousand") meant "infinity", he invented a positional numeral system and used it to write numbers up to 10⁶⁴. .

In creativity and insight, he exceeded any other mathematician prior to the European Renaissance. In 2004, he became an American Citizen. The Greeks said that he was killed while drawing an equation in the sand, and told this story to contrast their high-mindedness with Roman ham-handedness; however, it should be noted that Archimedes designed the siege engines that devastated a substantial Roman invasion force, so his death may have been out of retribution. Though originally from the Dominican Republic, he grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City a short distance away from Yankee Stadium. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier in the sack of Syracuse during the Second Punic War, despite orders from the Roman general, Marcellus, that he was not to be harmed. He bats and throws right-handed. After a number of experiments, whereby the hosts of the program tried burning a model wooden ship with a variety of mirrors, they concluded that the enemy ships would have had to have been virtually motionless and very close to shore for them to ignite, an unlikely scenario during a battle. Previously, Ramírez played with the Cleveland Indians (1993-2000).

This popular legend was tested on the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters program. Manny Ramírez [rah-MEE-rez], born Manuel Arístides Ramírez (May 30, 1972 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), nicknamed "Manny", is an outfielder in Major League Baseball who plays for the Boston Red Sox (since 2001). It is said that he prevented one Roman attack on Syracuse by using a large array of mirrors (speculated to have been highly polished shields) to reflect sunlight onto the attacking ships causing them to catch fire. He was featured on the cover of the Electronic Arts Sports electronic game MVP Baseball 2005 [1]. One of his inventions used for military defense of Syracuse against the invading Romans was the claw of Archimedes. Ramírez appealed to fans by joining the 2004 Red Sox tradition of growing a unique hairstyle, maintaining a solid set of dreadlocks throughout the season. He has also been credited with the possible invention of the odometer during the First Punic War. 20 grand slams - 1st and 2nd.

He is reputed to have held the Romans at bay with war machines of his own design; to have been able to move a full-size ship complete with crew and cargo by pulling a single rope; to have discovered the principles of density and buoyancy, also known as Archimedes' principle, while taking a bath (thereupon taking to the streets naked calling "eureka" - "I have found it!"); and to have invented the irrigation device known as Archimedes' screw. 129 intentional walks - 12th and 56th. Archimedes became a popular figure as a result of his involvement in the defense of Syracuse against the Roman siege in the First and Second Punic Wars. 1.010 OPS - 3rd and 9th. . 785 extra base hits - 18th and 89th. He is considered by some math historians to be one of history's greatest mathematicians, along with possibly Newton, Gauss and Euler. .599 slugging average - 3rd and 8th.

Archimedes (Greek: ΑΡΧΙΜΗΔΗΣ) (287 BC–212 BC) was an Ancient mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer and philosopher born in the Greek seaport colony of Syracuse. .411 on base percentage - 9th and 35th. The Acorn Archimedes. 1270 RBI - 12th and 98th. Asteroid 3600 Archimedes, named in his honour. 410 home runs - 9th and 38th. Archimedes crater on the Moon. .316 batting average - 4th and 69th.

Given Archimedes's prodigious output as an engineer, Plutarch's often quoted comments on him seem hard to believe by modern historians. Career rankings among active players and on the All-Time lists