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Archimedes and Ship Design

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Archimedes in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Trends in the History of Science ((TRENDSHISTORYSCIENCE))

Abstract

In his written work Archimedes’ primary contributions to ship design were the law of buoyancy and the criterion of stability of a floating object. These laws form the foundations of the floatability and upright stability of ships. How did he create and justify this fundamental knowledge? Might he have applied it to contemporary issues in the ship design of his era? How was this knowledge passed down through the centuries and when and how was it applied to practical ship design decisions? What is the role of Archimedes’ fundamental insights in today’s ship design? This article will address these issues in its three sections on Archimedes’ own contributions, the history of his heritage in the maritime field, and the continuing significance of his physical laws in modern ship design.

Motto on Archimedes: All praise him, few read him, all admire him, few understand him. —A. Tacquet (1612–1660)

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Acknowledgments

I express my gratitude to Chris Rorres , the initiator and organizer of this international conference on Archimedes in the twenty-first century for stirring my interest and inviting me to contribute a section on Archimedes’ role and importance for ship design. I am also grateful for the continuing support I am receiving from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, where I have been a Visiting Scientist since 2001.

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  1. Technical University of Berlin, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany

    Horst Nowacki

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Correspondence to Horst Nowacki .

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  1. Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Chris Rorres

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Nowacki, H. (2017). Archimedes and Ship Design. In: Rorres, C. (eds) Archimedes in the 21st Century. Trends in the History of Science. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58059-3_5

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