This mathematician contributed to levers and proposed an early method to estimate pi; identify him.

This mathematician contributed to levers and proposed an early method to estimate pi; identify him.

• A. Pythagoras
• B. Archimedes
• C. Euclid
• D. Fibonacci

Answer: (B)

Archimedes is the figure described. He formalized the lever as a simple machine, showing that the turning effect depends on the product of force and lever arm length, which lets a smaller force move a larger load with a longer lever—the famous idea of moving the earth with a lever underscores this insight. He also pioneered estimating pi through geometry by using inscribed and circumscribed regular polygons inside and around a circle. By increasing the number of polygon sides, he gradually tightened the bounds for pi. With a 96-sided polygon, he showed pi lies between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71, a remarkably accurate approximation for his era. That combination of work on levers and early geometric estimation of pi points to Archimedes.

Archimedes is the figure described. He formalized the lever as a simple machine, showing that the turning effect depends on the product of force and lever arm length, which lets a smaller force move a larger load with a longer lever—the famous idea of moving the earth with a lever underscores this insight.

He also pioneered estimating pi through geometry by using inscribed and circumscribed regular polygons inside and around a circle. By increasing the number of polygon sides, he gradually tightened the bounds for pi. With a 96-sided polygon, he showed pi lies between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71, a remarkably accurate approximation for his era.

That combination of work on levers and early geometric estimation of pi points to Archimedes.