Archimedes Counts the Grains of Sand in the Universe - Great Dreamers

I never doubted you for a second, my boy. You are very talented, and the gratitude I will show you will be just as impressive. So His Majesty will let me devote myself to the pursuit of science? Fine, I shall let you go and do as you wish. But before that, I want you to do one more task. To count the grains of sand in the universe. But that will take an eternity. Of course. But you must admit that my kindness is just as impressive. I spoke nothing of war machines and guard towers. I could have asked you of all the grains in the world. All the ants. Even the stars that you love so much. Even the gods can't tally all of them. Well, will you submit? The king wanted to scare Archimedes. But instead, the prideful young man accepted his challenge. He approached the problem methodically by splitting it into two parts. First, he had to figure out the size of the universe. Then he needed to calculate how many grains of sand could an object like that fit. For example, a pot of flour. Back in Alexandria, Archimedes read the work of Aristarchus. He claimed that the sun was the center of the universe as other planets revolved around it. Contrary to what his father taught him, the stars also have their own spheres that are also revolving. The earth is halfway between the sun and the stars. Thus, we can measure the size of the universe by knowing that the distance between the earth and the sun equals half of the sun's radius. It's time. He then calculated the amount of sand needed to fill the globe. A great amount. He needed to come up with a new symbol for it. M or myriad. Arab mathematicians would have called this number 10,000. I will need your help. Give these to me when I ask for them. Please. But he needed to know what the distance between the earth and the sun was. No one had attempted such precise calculations before. He invented an instrument with which he could measure the angle and size of the sun. He used it to work out how far away the sun was, and that is how he solved his task. Now he could calculate the number of grains of sand in the entire known universe. Who else could have done something like that? There's nothing you can't solve, Isla. It's incredible. There's nothing mathematics cannot solve. I don't doubt it. What am I supposed to do with you, my boy?