Archimedes of Syracuse
287 BCE–212 BCE, Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse, Sicily
Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist and engineer of Syracuse, who discovered the principle of buoyancy and made many mechanical inventions.
According to a famous (though possibly embellished) anecdote, Archimedes discovered the buoyancy principle while bathing, realizing the volume of water displaced equaled the volume of his submerged body, then shouted 'Eureka!' and ran into the street. He used this principle to determine whether King Hiero II's crown had been adulterated with cheaper metal, without destroying it. He also made major contributions to geometry (computing areas and volumes via the method of exhaustion, foreshadowing integral calculus by nearly two thousand years) and military engineering.
Italy