Archimedes' Secret is a documentary film made in 2002. Why is it worth to mention? Archimedes was a Greek mathematician who was thinking about math probably all the time. Even in his bath he was drawing on his hand with a lather. During his life this great thinker took down the ideas and math discoveries. Later the documents disappeared (not all). In the Middle Ages monks wrote prayer books. One of them had a lack of parchment. The reason why he did not get any other or did not wait for supply is not known. So he took a book (Archimedes' one), removed the text, washed it and continued with a holy work.
The beginning of the 20th century - a time of a great discovery. In Constantinople Johan Ludwig Heiberg found a book which he identified as Archimedes' work. With the beginning of WWI the famous manuscript disappeared.
Is it still lost? No, it was found in 1991 in Paris in a French family. They sold it to a lucky man who let it to be inspected. This is not a question of a month or a year. Unfortunatelly the lists of paper were infected by mould. The work goes slowly but thanks to the modern technique (UV light, computers) the secrets will be revealed.
Why was/is the book so important and why Archimedes is important? Because if he has not been forgotten, our civilisation would be elsewhere. Things which he already discovered in the 3rd century BC were being discovered many centuries later in Renaissance. Still no idea why do we need all of that? See the film, look into a calculus book, ask your math teacher, ...
Find out more here: http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/
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