Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and the explanation of the principle of the lever. He is credited with designing innovative machines, including siege engines and the screw pump that bears his name. Modern experiments have tested claims that Archimedes designed machines capable of lifting attacking ships out of the water and setting ships on fire using an array of mirrors.

Archimedes is generally considered to be the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. He used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under the arc of a parabola with the summation of an infinite series, and gave a remarkably accurate approximation of Pi.He also defined the spiral bearing his name, formulas for the volumes of surfaces of revolution and an ingenious system for expressing very large numbers.

Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. Cicero describes visiting the tomb of Archimedes, which was surmounted by a sphere inscribed within a cylinder. Archimedes had proved that the sphere has two thirds of the volume and surface area of the cylinder (including the bases of the latter), and regarded this as the greatest of his mathematical achievements.

Unlike his inventions, the mathematical writings of Archimedes were little known in antiquity. Mathematicians from Alexandria read and quoted him, but the first comprehensive compilation was made only by Isidore of Miletus (c. 530 AD), while commentaries on the works of Archimedes written by Eutocius in the sixth century AD opened them to wider readership for the first time. The relatively few copies of Archimedes' written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance, while the discovery in 1906 of previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born American theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect and "for his services to Theoretical Physics".

1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" (from the official Nobel Prize announcement)
Albert Einstein's Early Work:
In 1901, he received his diploma as a teacher of physics and mathematics. Unable to find a teaching position, he went to work for the Swiss Patent Office. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1905, the same year he published four significant papers, introducing the concepts of special relativity and the photon theory of light.

Albert Einstein & Scientific Revolution:
Albert Einstein's work in 1905 shook the world of physics. In his explanation of the photoelectric effect he introduced the photon theory of light. In his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," he introduced the concepts of special relativity.
Einstein spent the rest of his life and career dealing with the consequences of these concepts, both by developing general relativity and by questioning the field of quantum physics on the principle that it was "spooky action at a distance."
Albert Einstein Moves to America:
In 1933, Albert Einstein renounced his German citizenship and moved to America, where he took a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, as a Professor of Theoretical Physics. He gained American citizenship in 1940.
He was offered the first presidency of Israel, but he declined it, though he did help found the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Misconceptions About Albert Einstein:

The rumor began circulating even while Einstein was alive that he had failed mathematics courses as a child. While it is true that Einstein began to talk late - at about age 4 according to his own accounts - he never failed in mathematics, nor did he do poorly in school in general. He did fairly well in his mathematics courses throughout his education and briefly considered becoming a mathematician. He recognized early on that his gift was not in pure mathematics, a fact he lamented throughout his career as he sought out more accomplished mathematicians to assist in the formal descriptions of his theories.