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: Archimedes considered his most significant accomplishments were those concerning a cylinder cirscribing a sphere, and he asked for a representation of this together with his result on the ratio of the two, to be inscribed on his tomb. Cicero was in Sicily in 75 BC and he writes how he searched for Archimedes tomb (see for example [1]):- : ... and found it enclosed all around and covered with brambles and thickets; for I remembered certain doggerel lines inscribed, as I had heard, upon his tomb, which stated that a sphere along with a cylinder had been put on top of his grave. Accordingly, after taking a good look all around ..., I noticed a small column arising a little above the bushes, on which there was a figure of a sphere and a cylinder... . Slaves were sent in with sickles ... and when a page to the place was opened we approached the pedestal in front of us; the epigram was traceable with about half of the lines legible, as the latter portion was worn away. : : Go here to see the spiral of Archimedes, http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Curves/Spiral.html

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