Law of the lever and centre of gravity
Ley de la palanca y centro de gravedad
- Date
- c. 250 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Syracuse, Sicily, Italy
- Credited to
- Archimedes of Syracuse
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Two weights balance at distances from the fulcrum inversely proportional to their magnitudes; Archimedes proves it axiomatically and defines the centre of gravity. The origin of statics and of the idea of a simple machine.
'Give me a place to stand and I will move the world' is a later attribution (Pappus). The treatise is 'On the Equilibrium of Planes'.
What it led to
- Statics and the theory of simple machines
- Concept of moment of force and virtual work
- Classical mechanical engineering (cranes, pulleys, winches)
- Rational mechanics of Galileo and Newton
Built on
- Pseudo-Aristotelian mechanical problems
- Empirical use of the lever since the Neolithic
Made possible
- Block and tackle and compound crane
- Steelyard balance
- Calculated catapults and siege engines