Book on Archimedes with biography and precalculus-level mathematics

[kenewbie]

I'm looking for a book containing both his ideas explained at a pre-calc level as well as some biographical information.

What I have been able to dig up on amazon looks unappealing.

Any suggestions?

k

 

[Howers]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486420841/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Thats as good as it gets. Anything else is mickey mouse and outdated. Greek math is not for newbies.

 

[kenewbie]

I was afraid of that. Page after page of written accounts of geometry sounds too difficult to be honest.

"There are in a plane some limited curved lines, which are either wholly on the side of the straight lines, joining their limits or have nothing on the other side. So, I call "concave in the same direction" such a line, in which, if any two points whatever being taken, the straight lines between the two points either all fall on the same side of the line, or some fall on the same side and some on the line itself, but none on the other side."

I just don't have it in me to learn from stuff like that.

k

 

[Howers]

You don't need to learn Greek math. Its been incorporated into modern analytic geometry and calculus. Look to Greek only for historical reasons.