Opinionated History of Mathematics

Intellectual Mathematics

Cracking tales of historical mathematics and its interplay with science, philosophy, and culture. Revisionist history galore. Contrarian takes on received wisdom. Implications for teaching. Informed by current scholarship. By Dr Viktor Blåsjö.

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Opinionated History of Mathematics

Episodes (40)

Jul 15, 2025 Death of Archimedes
Dec 30, 2024 Torricelli’s trumpet is not counterintuitive
Nov 29, 2023 Did Copernicus steal ideas from Islamic astronomers?

Opinionated History of Mathematics

Jul 15, 2025
26¼ minutes
12 MB

Archimedes’s emblematic death makes sense psychologically and embodies a rich historical picture in a single scene. Transcript Archimedes died mouthing back at an enemy soldier: “Don’t disturb my circles.” Or that’s how the story goes. Is this fact or fiction? We have third-hand accounts at best so there is plenty of room for doubt. But I’m putting my money on fact nonetheless. I think this standard story makes sense. I think it works psychologically with what little we know about Archimedes as a person, and I think it fits contextually...

Opinionated History of Mathematics

Death of Archimedes

Intellectual Mathematics

00:00 -26:21