Subject: Re: [HM] Mathematics and Time
From: Gordon Fisher (gfisher@shentel.net)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 21:36:24 EST
[Avinoam Mann]
>
> Clark Kimberling quoted Philip J. Davies: "According to Archimedes..."
> etc. I am not aware of any writings of Archimedes on time. What is the
> reference, or another basis, for these assertions about Archimedes'
> position?
>
I think the reference here is to the probably apocryphal attribution to
Archimedes of a statement to the effect that if one had a suitable fulcrum
and a long enough lever, one could move the world. Probably this was
someone's idea of making vivid the material Archimedes wrote on the so-called
"law of the lever". I don't recall anything in the work of Archimedes known
to us in which there is an explicit reference to time, although I'm basing
this statement on old memories of going through Archimedes works.
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net
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