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Although Archimedes achieved fame through his inventions of mechanical war machines, he believed that pure mathematics was the only worthy pursuit in life. The achievements of Archimedes are quite outstanding. He is considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He perfected a method of integration which allowed him to find areas, volumes and surface areas of many bodies. Archimedes was killed in 212 BC during the capture of Syracuse by the Romans in the Second Punic War after all his efforts to keep the Romans at bay with his machines of war had failed. |