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Features
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: 
Studio: WGBH Boston
DVD Release Date: January 6, 2004
Run Time: 60 minutes
Average Customer Review:
  (4 customer reviews)
Reader Reviews
This is an utterly fascinating documentary. Not only does it help cast Archimedes in an even more important light than ever, it details one of the most amazing "lost book" stories I've ever read. Lost for over a millennium, then discovered, then lost again for decades, then rediscovered, the last known copy of Archimedes' greatest work has finally reemerged, amazing scholars with its revelations of Archimedes' true genius. Sold at auction in 1998 for two million dollars, this priceless document is now being painstakingly deciphered and translated by a team of experts. The documentary opens with a summary of Archimedes' life and accomplishments. We may laugh at the story of Archimedes jumping out of his bath and running naked through the streets shouting Eureka, or roll our eyes when we hear of his boast to move the entire world if he only had a place to stand, but his discoveries speak for themselves: e.g., the principles of density and buoyancy, a remarkably accurate estimate of the value for pi, his work with spirals, spheres, etc. The man was also a gifted inventor, especially in the realm of weapons of war - catapults capable of firing at multiple ranges, the burning-mirror that proved so effective against Roman invaders, and advanced pulley and lever systems, just to name a few. When the Romans finally did invade Sicily, Archimedes was specifically targeted and killed (in 212 BC). Interest in mathematics soon declined, reemerging only during the European Renaissance - and now we know that the great thinkers of that new golden age were rediscovering things Archimedes already discovered and wrote about over two centuries before the birth of Christ. If the manuscript of Archimedes' greatest work, The Method, had not been lost, it's certainly realistic to speculate that modern science would be far more advanced than it already is. The Method was transcribed by several generations of monks, with a final copy being made in the 10th century. Two centuries later, however, a monk ran out of parchment and used that precious copy of Archimedes' book to make a prayer book. This involved cutting the pages, folding them over, and washing or scraping away enough of the original content to allow him to write over what was there. This palimpsest spent centuries in a monastery in the Judean desert before turning up in Constantinople in the early 20th century. In 1906, a philologist named Heiberg discovered the document, realized its true significance, and photographed its pages for his own study. History soon struck again, however, and the manuscript disappeared during the chaos of World War I. It was not until 1971 that a single copy of the manuscript suddenly appeared in Cambridge, England; Greek expert Nigel Wilson learned he could make out most of the faint writing using UV light, but the rest of the manuscript was seemingly lost. We now know it had been in Paris since the 1920s, but now, finally, it is in the hands of experts working to restore it. The restoration process has not been easy, as you can imagine. The museum curator in charge of the project paints a vivid picture of the terrible state the manuscript is in, having been damaged by fire, mold, modern glue, etc. Curiously, it has also had religious images painted over several pages - pieces of artwork conclusively shown to be modern forgeries. With so many obstacles in the way of reclaiming the "infinite secrets" contained in the manuscript, the documentary goes into painstaking detail in terms of the impressive efforts being made to restore, read, and translate it. The work continues, but some major discoveries have already been made, showing Archimedes to be a man many centuries ahead of his time. Among other things, he had come up with a set of rules for dealing with infinity, proving that he was essentially Newton's immediate predecessor in the discovery of calculus. As I said, this is a stellar, super-informative documentary. The remarkably mysterious journey of the Archimedes Palimpsest over the last millennium is yet another example of truth being stranger than fiction, and the modern techniques being brought to bear in restoring this ancient manuscript are fascinating in and of themselves. If you have any interest in history or mathematics, you will no doubt be as impressed with this documentary as I am.
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NOVA - Infinite Secrets: The Genius of Archimedes
List Price: $19.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $17.99
Updated on 12-6-2008.
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