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The Method of Mechanical Theorems

The Method of Mechanical Theorems , also referred to as The Method, is considered one of the major surviving works of the ancient Greek polymath Archimedes. The Method takes the form of a letter from Archimedes to Eratosthenes, the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria, and contains the first attested explicit use of indivisibles . The work was originally thought to be lost, but in 1906 was rediscovered in the celebrated Archimedes Palimpsest. The palimpsest includes Archimedes' account of the "mechanical method", so-called because it relies on the law of the lever, which was first demonstrated by Archimedes, and of the center of mass , which he had found for many special shapes.