Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) was no doubt the leading mathematician of his day. He was born in Syracuse, Sicily, where he lived most of his life. He attended the University of Alexandria, the center of learning at that time. He was the first scientist to recognize the power of the lever. He invented the compound pulley and Archimedes' screw. He discovered the principle of buoyancy which states that an object immersed in a fluid loses as much weight as the weight of the fluid displaced. This became known as the Archimedes principle. He was especially engrossed in geometry and particularly in finding the circumference and area of a circle and the surface area and volume of a sphere. He reasoned that an inscribed polygon of an infinite number of sides would be a circle. Using this theory, he inscribed an equilateral triangle in a circle; then he bisected each side producing a hexagon; then he bisected the sides again and produced a twelve-sided dodecagon. By continuing this process, he produced a 24-gon, 48-gon and 96-gon. He repeated this whole process starting with a circumscribed triangle to produce a circumscribed 96-gon. By averaging the perimeters of the two polygons, he arrived at the circumference of the circle and found that its ratio to the diameter was 3.14. Thus, he was the first one to approximate a value of pi that is still used today. Archimedes followed the same procedure to find the surface area of a sphere using polyhedra. This concept of using an infinite number of lines or plane surfaces to measure a curved surface is the basis of the calculus, which was rediscovered 2,000 years later by Isaac Newton. Archimedes recorded his thoughts in a recently discovered manuscript called 'The Method.'
Man has ever strived to devise a way or method to attain salvation. The Jews in the days of Christ believed that they had the answer in a large collection of rules called the Talmud which codified just about every aspect of life. They believed that following these rules assured one of eternal life. Jesus condemned this whole concept of salvation by good works. But man is ever looking for a way to earn salvation. In the eighteenth century, the two Wesley brothers, John and Charles, who were sons of an Anglican clergyman, organized a club of devout students who pledged themselves to regular Bible study, attending Holy Communion, visiting prisoners, and following a strict orderly pattern of life. This structured life-style became known as Methodism. Contemporaries derided them as the Holy Club or Bible Bigots.
Jesus taught that salvation could not be obtained by good works, but rather it was a gift that could not be bought. He said that good works are a natural result of a life committed to His service; He said that He is the only way to salvation (John 14:6), and that there is no other way. Man's methods won't work, for when it comes to salvation, Jesus is "the method."
