Claw of Archimedes Claw of Archimedes The Claw (, "harpágē", "snatcher") of Archimedes (also known as the "iron hand") was an ancient weapon devised by Archimedes to defend the seaward portion of Syracuse's city wall against amphibious assault. Although its exact nature is unclear, the accounts of ancient historians seem to describe it as a sort of crane equipped with a grappling hook that was able to lift an attacking ship partly out of the water, then either cause the ship to capsize or suddenly drop it. These machines featured prominently during the Second Punic War in 214 BC, when the Roman Republic
Archimedes' quadruplets Archimedes' quadruplets In geometry, Archimedes' quadruplets are four congruent circles associated with an arbelos. Introduced by Frank Power in the summer of 1998, each have the same area as Archimedes' twin circles, making them Archimedean circles. An arbelos is formed from three collinear points "A", "B", and "C", by the three semicircles with diameters "AB", "AC", and "BC". Let the two smaller circles have radii "r" and "r", from which it follows that the larger semicircle has radius "r" = "r"+"r". Let the points "D" and "E" be the center and midpoint, respectively, of the semicircle with the radius "r".