The surface area of the bicylinder and Archimedes' Method

Abstract

A bicylinder is the intersection of two equal right circular cylinders whose axes intersect at right angles. Archimedes says in his Method that the volume of the bicylinder is two-thirds of the volume of the cube whose edge is equal to the diameter of the cylinders. The surface area of the bicylinder is also two-thirds of the surface area of this cube. I argue that this result was known to Archimedes. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).