Give Me A Place To Stand

This boast about moving the Earth was recorded by Pappus of Alexandria in Synagoge, Book VIII (c. AD 340) and is also found in Plutarch's Marcellus and Diodorus Siculus. Archimedes had written to King Hiero II of Syracuse demonstrating that any weight could be moved by a sufficient force, and the king challenged him to prove it. Archimedes reportedly used a system of pulleys to drag a fully laden ship single-handed, dramatically illustrating the power of mechanical advantage.