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Archimedes demonstrates in two ways that the segment of a parabola is 4/3 the
demonstration. He says that the proposition first became clear to him by mechanical
methods; the geometrical method came second, to provide an actual proof of the
Parabola). In examining these two proofs we hope to find a) the different methods
supposition is made that the segment is equal to a certain area K, which fits the formula
we are trying to prove. For if the segment is not equal to area K, says Archimedes, it
must be greater or less than the area K. The proof then shows both of these options to be
geometric relations. Then Archimedes strays wildly from familiar geometry. The
Euclid defines a line as breadthless length. Archimedes, in order for his demonstration to
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work, must contradict Euclid’s definition. Proposition 1 claims that lines can be situated
with their “centers of gravity” at a given point and that lines can be in equilibrium about a
certain point. But for a thing to have a center of gravity or to balance about a point, it
must have mass; in order for it to have mass, it must have breadth.
line with breadth. Once we secure a proportion between an arbitrary line within the
triangle and a line within the segment, Archimedes tells us the relationship is the same for
the whole triangle and the whole segment since the triangle “is made up of all the parallel
lines” like the one in our proportion, and the segment “is made up of all the straight lines”
like the corresponding line in the proportion. Again, in order for a segment to be “made
as it strays from Euclidean principles and depends on truths of the physical world. The
one’s ability to visualize a line being dragged across the segment and watch, as if in
motion, the lines grow and shrink while always remaining in proportion.
geometric proof and is perhaps more intuitively understood, Archimedes ends his
proposition with a claim that the theorem has not been demonstrated; he only suspects it
to be true. In his assertion that he needs a purely geometric proof in order to show the
truth of the theorem, he seems to assume that truth can only be found in the realm of pure
geometry. Somehow, his use of physical phenomena (centers of gravity and points of
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If mechanical demonstrations are corrupted by the use of physical phenomena and
are not trustworthy as proofs, why is it the mechanical proposition which occurs to
Archimedes first? Why is the mechanical proposition easier to visualize than the purely
because it relates more closely with our experience. Any line we can imagine does have
breadth. It is therefore feasible to imagine one dragging a line to complete the area of a
segment. Any “line” we can create does have mass and a center of gravity. So it is
possible to imagine that lines could balance against one another. The geometric proof, in
contrast, depends on other propositions (Prop 23, in particular) which, though graspable
because he hopes it will help him get a start on his own investigations. Though
mechanical demonstrations might not be accepted as proof of a theorem, they allow one
to see through the use of the physical world if the theorem is likely true. The fact that
mechanical proofs use our experience of the physical world makes them more accessible
and easier to visualize, even as they stray from the Euclidean world of pure logic.